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OLD TIME BELLES 
AND CAVALIERS 



THIS LIMITED EDITION HAS BEEN PRINTED FROM 
TYPE AND THE TYPE DISTRIBUTED 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
MANORS of VIRGINIA 

IN 

COLONIAL TIMES 

By EDITH TUNIS SALE 

"Gracefully and briefly written and the most 
striking episodes and personalities associated with 
each estate are skilfully introduced, giving the 
volume both historical and genealogical value. The 
illustrations are peculiarly fine." — Baltimore Sun. 

Edition Limited to J^OOO Copies 
NOW OUT OF PRINT 



RED ROSE INN 

Frontispiece in Color by Ethel Franklin Betts 

Though a veritable chameleon, when it comes 
to whims, the heroine proves fascinating, and a 
more solidly enjoyable story will not be found for 
many a day. 

Ornamental Cloth, $l.oo net 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS PHILADELPHIA 




^ 



OLD TIME BELLES 
AND CAVALIERS 



By 

EDITH TUNIS SALE 

AUTHOR OF 

MANORS OF VIRGINIA IN COLONIAL TIMES, 
AND " R,ED ROSE INN " 



WITH SIXTY-ONE I LLU S T RA T I ON S 




^ 



PHILADELPHIA & LONDON 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

1912 



^ 






COPYRIGHT, 1912. BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 



PUBLISHED, OCTOBER, 1912 



PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS 

PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A. 



(gCLA327n23 



TO MY HUSBAND 

WILLIAM WILSON SALE 

WHO COMES OF THE RACE OF ONE OF THESE 

OLD TIME BELLES, THIS VOLUME IS 

AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 



FOREWORD 



The stories which form the chapters of this 
work have been collected with the sincere hope 
that our own and the mother country will find 
in them much of which to be proud. 

The Colonies of America, so famed in the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for their 
brave men, were equally rich in their beautiful 
women who exhibited so marvellously well the 
power of the highest feminine influence during 
the most historic and trying age the country 
has known. 

The Revolutionary days, so filled with despair 
and gloom, the early hours of the first Republic, 
were productive of some of the noblest spirits 
ever given to the world, and it was the staunch 
devotion and truth of her lovely women, the 
stalwart patriotism of her high-born men, that 
cast the lone glimmer of radiance over the 
appalling scenes of war. 

So the stories of womanly heroism and manly 
bravery with which the lives of the old time 
belles and cavaliers are indelibly associated 
should be familiar to all readers of American 



FOREWORD 



history, for while the English men and women 

of that day were lounging at court or taking 

their ease at Bath, their kinsmen and women 

over the sea were suffering and enduring the 

privations of war and discomforts of life in a 

new country. 

And to the firmness with which the social 

corner-stone of America was then laid, to the 

ancient customs of court and country imported 

from foreign shores to be faithfully followed in 

the newer land, to the great plantations upon 

which was maintained so rigidly a sort of feudal 

system against seemingly insurmountable 

odds, the heads of this proud country must 

to-day be bowed in homage to its Old Time 

Belles and Cavaliers. 

Edith Tunis Sale 



CONTENTS 



PAQE 

Pocahontas Mistress John- Rolfe 11 

Robert Carter of Corotoman . "King" Carter 21 

William Byrd 29 

Mary Ball Madame Augustine 

Washington 41 

Evelyn Byrd 56 

Martha Dandridge Mrs. George Washington . . 64 

Brlan Fairfax Eighth Lord Fairfax 75 

Lambert Cadwalader 86 

Frances Deering Wentworth . Lady Wentworth 94 

George Digges 101 

Alice DeLancey Mrs. Ralph Izard 109 

Benjamin Thompson Count Rumford 117 

John Macpherson 126 

Sarah Van Brugh Livingston . Mrs. John Jay 134 

Peggy Chew Mrs. John Eager Howard . 139 

Elizabeth Schuyler Mrs. Alexander Hamilton. 145 

Catharine Alexander Lady Kitty Duer 152 

Peggy Shippen Mrs. Benedict Arnold 158 

Anne Willing Mrs. William Bingham 169 

Abigail Adams Mrs. William Stephens Smith 178 

Dolly Payne Mrs. James Madison 186 

Mary Julia Seymour Mrs. John Chenevard 200 

Martha Jefferson Mrs. Thomas Mann Randolph 204 

Rebecca Smith Mrs. Samuel Blodget 212 

Sally McKean Marquise d'Yrujo 219 

Eliza Custis Mrs. Thomas Law 224 

Eleanor Parke Custis Mrs. Lawrence Lewis 234 

Theodosia Burr Mrs. Joseph Alston 247 

Betsy Patterson Madame Jerome Bonaparte 259 

Anne Carmichael Mrs. William Keymeys 273 

Index 281 

7 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Evelyn Byrd Frontispiece 

Pocahontas. The Ideal Portrait by Sully 12 

Pocahontas. The Booton Hall Portrait 16 '' 

John Bolling 18''' 

The Bolling Arms 18 v^ 

Elizabeth Hill. The Daughter-in-Law of "King" Carter 22 '^ 

"King" Carter 26 i^' 

The Father of Colonel William Byrd as a Child 32 / 

Colonel William Byrd 32 v^ 

Westover, During the Civil War 34 "^ 

Mary Ball. Madame Augustine Washington 43 s^ 

The Old House in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where Mary 

Ball Washington Spent the Last Days of Heh Life. ... 46 '^ 

Evelyn Bybd's Bedroom at Westover 60 '^ 

The Doll Trunk of Martha Dandridge Washington 64 l'' 

Martha Dandridge. Mrs. George Washington 72 "^ 

Brian, Lord Fairfax 76 ^^ 

Fairfax Arms 76 / 

Lambert Cadwalader 90 w 

Frances Deering Wentworth. Lady Wentworth 96 i/ 

George Digges 104 t^ 

Alice DeLancey. Mrs. Ralph Izard 112 ^ 

Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Izard 114 ^ 

Benjamin Thompson. Count Rumford 123 j/^ 

Major John Macpherson 128 ; 

The Macpherson Arms 128 ^ 

Sarah Van Brugh Livingston. Mrs. John Jay. From the Por- 
trait by R. E. Pine • 134 ^ 

Phiup Livingston 136 ^ 

The Livingston Arms 136 / 

Sarah Van Brugh Livingston. Mrs. John Jay. From the 

Miniature by Huntington 138 "^ 

9 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Peggy Chew. Mrs. John Eager Howard 140 ^ 

Colonel John Eager Howard 140 

The Mischl\nza Ticket 142 

Major John Andre 142 

Elizabeth Schuyler. Mrs. Alexander Hamilton 148 ' 

Alexander Hamilton 150 

Catharine Alexander. Lady Kitty Duer 154 

Peggy Shippen. Mrs. Benedict Arnold 160 ^ 

Benedict Arnold 164 ^ 

Anne Willing. Mrs. William Bingham 170 1^ 

William Bingham 172 ^ 

Elizabeth Willing 176 "^ 

Abigail Adams. Mrs. William Stephens Smith 182 *^ 

Dolly Payne. Mrs. James Madison 190 >^ 

Ring Presented to Dolly Madison by George Washington. 190 >^ 

Dorothea Spotswood Henry 192 i^ 

Mary Julia Seymour. Mrs. John Chenevard 202 t^ 

Martha Jefferson. Mrs. Thomas Mann Randolph 207 i^ 

"Edge Hill," the Country-seat of Martha Jefferson 

Randolph, in Albemarle County, Virginia 209 *'"' 

Rebecca Smith. Mrs. Samuel Blodget 216 "^ 

Sally McKean. Marchioness d'Yrujo ." 221 

The Marquis d'Yrujo 222 / 

Eliza Parke Custis. Mrs. Thomas Law 228 v 

Eliza Custis' Snuff-box 228 \' 

Nellie Custis 238 

Book-mark of Nellie Custis 238 

Eleanor Parke Custis. Mrs. Lawrence Lewis 245 "^'^ 

Theodosia Burr. Mrs. Joseph Alston 250 ' 

Theodosia Burr. Mrs. Joseph Alston. The Nag's Head Por- 
trait 255 

Elizabeth Patterson. Madame Jerome Bonaparte 262 

Prince Jerome Bonaparte 264 

Anne Carmichael. Mrs. William Keymeys 274 ^ 

10 



OLD TIME BELLES 
AND CAVALIERS 

POCAHONTAS 

MISTRESS JOHN ROLFE 




HE name of Pocahon- 
tas is inseparably asso- 
ciated with the Colon- 
ial history of America, 
and in the lapse of 
years which have in- 
vested that period with 
the brilliant coloring of 
poesy, it has been borrowed by more than one 
artist as the ground- work of a picture or a 
romance. 

The little brown maid whose life proved so 
picturesque, so interesting and withal so pitifully 
sad, was a real, living person with a wild heart 
answering to her untutored mind when John 
Smith first saw her, yet, by the action which 
irrevocably linked her name with the history of 
our country for all time, child though she was, 

she proved how well she understood the power 

11 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 



of woman when she plead with her Chieftain 
father to spare " the Pale-Face." 

Pocahontas — in Indian language, " Bright 
stream between two hills," Matoaka " Little 
Snow-Feather" and Amonate, with its unknown 
meaning, were the three names given the little 
savage born, if we may judge by the inscription 
upon an authentic portrait, in 1595. This child 
of redskin parents, who came into being in the 
forest and knew only the language of the trees 
and flowers, had undoubtedly more to do ^vith 
the fate of the Western continent than any 
woman, excepting, perhaps, Isabella, Queen of 
Spain. 

From our very first knowledge of her, she 
appears constantly as a harbinger of peace be- 
tween the Indians and the white men, and it 
is John Smith himself who introduces her to us 
as his savior. " At the minute of my execution," 
he wrote, " she hazarded the beating out of her 
owne braines to save mine; ajid not only that, 
but so prewailed with her owne father that I was 
safely conducted to Jamestowne," and it was thus 
that " the dearest daughter of Powhatan" found 
her way into the history of the new nation and 
began a career which furnishes its most unique, 
romantic and pathetic chapter. 



12 




POCAHONTAS 

The Ideal Portrait by Sully 



POCAHONTAS 



From first to last, Pocahontas was the White 
Man's friend, yet her loyalty was sometimes met 
with treachery, as when Argall lured her aboard 
his ship to exchange her for captives held by 
Powhatan. Even then, the little maid did not 
falter, for, when the English further refused to 
surrender her unless the Indians gave up their 
guns also, she signified her preference of remain- 
ing with them and returned to Jamestown to be 
used again and again for countless favors. 

Pocahontas was quick to learn and soon began 
to understand the way and language of the new 
race whose religion she accepted and whose lives 
she tried to imitate. The loss of her from his 
own village must have been a great trial to the 
old warrior who so often for her rose above his 
savage nature and forgot revenge ; nor is it prob- 
able that his treaty of peace with the white men 
would have been kept so well but for the memory 
of the daughter his heart always cherished. 

The pitiable page in the romance of Pocahon- 
tas comes with her marriage. John Smith, the 
man who had awakened her savage nature, was 
big and blond, cheerful and hearty ; fatherly and 
protecting in his attitude towards the woodland 
princess, and though she may not have called it 
love, historians agree in doubting if she would 

13 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 



ever have consented to marry anyone else had 
she known Smith was alive. But here again, the 
white men took advantage of her guileless child's 
nature. John Rolfe was a gentleman in his own 
country; Pocahontas, a princess in hers, so the 
match seemed fitting, and though he was the 
opposite of the ideal of the Indian girl, Governor 
Dale granted permission for the marriage, since 
Rolfe had written: "Pocahontas, to whom my 
heartie and best thoughts are and have a long 
time been so intangled and enthral-led." 

In writing to the Bishop of London, June 
18th, 1613, Sir Thomas Dale announced the re- 
markable marriage in the following words: 
" Powhatan's daughter I caused to be carefully 
instructed in the Christian religion, who, after 
she had made some good progress therein, re- 
nounced publickly her countrie's idolatry, openly 
confessed her Christian faith, and was as she 
desired, baptized, and is since married to an 
Englishman gentleman of good understanding 
(as by his letter to me containing the reasons of 
his marriage of her, you may perceive) another 
knot to bind this peace the stronger. Her father 
and friends gave apprehension to it and her uncle 
gave her to him in the Church. She lives civilly 
and lovingly with him, and I trust will increase in 

14 



POCAHONTAS 



goodness, as the knowledge of God increaseth in 
her. She will go to England with me ; and were 
it but the gaining of this one soul, I will think my 
time and toil and present stay well spent." 

True to his word, three years later Governor 
Dale, accompanied by John Rolfe and Pocahon- 
tas, set sail for Great Britain, landing at Ply- 
mouth on the twelfth day of June, 1616, and the 
reception accorded this child of a savage nation 
at the Court of James I reads far more like 
romance than history. The redskin bride was 
presented at Court by Lord and Lady Delaware, 
where she always carried herself as the daughter 
of a king and was accordingly respected as well 
as honored by persons of the highest rank. It 
is Purchas who describes one of her first appear- 
ances in an august assemblage. 

" I was present," he writes, " when my honor- 
able patron, the Lord Bishop of London, en- 
tertained her with festival and state and pomp, 
beyond what I have seen in his great hospitalitie 
afforded to other ladies." 

What a commentary it is upon the genius — or 
whatever it might have been — of the woman, that 
there were just nine years between her existence 
as a savage and as an honored lady at Court ! 

Poor little Princess ! Treated though she was 

15 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 



as a queen among queens, the men in whom she 
had frankly trusted had broken her untrained 
heart. Young enough to have been John Smith's 
daughter (and his feeling for her was purely pa- 
ternal ) , she nevertheless seems to have given him 
all the great love of her savage nature made gen- 
tle by her contact with the white race. When she 
met Smith in England, the story goes that she hid 
her face, crying, " They did tell us always you 
were dead, and I knew no other 'till I came to 
Pljinouth Your countrymen will lie much I " 

After this meeting, nothing seemed to mean 
much to Matoaka ; her husband, her son, life it- 
self lost all attraction for her and gradually her 
physical strength was burned away by the unceas- 
ing, painful fire in her heart, and she who had 
lived long enough to link together two continents, 
two nations and two civilizations, passed to the 
happy hunting grounds of her forefathers, her 
death being recorded in the St. Georges Parish 
Record: 

" 1616, Mar. 21, Rebecca Wrolfe, wyffe of 
Thos. Wrolfe, gent, a Virgini lady borne, was 
buried in ye Chauncel." 

Upon the walls of the Virginia State Library, 
in the beautiful city of Richmond, hangs a splen- 
did copy of the Booten Hall portrait of Pocahon- 



16 




^:^taussifmzf<M 



* f^^'fc^^^„<5^«f'f'^^ctc^«t^'9^t^r?o</)e mighty Pr'.r 



-were to t/ic >VorrM^Tha: Roiff ' 



POCAHONTAS 

The Booten Hall Portrait, Copied from the Original by William L. Sheppard 

for the State of Virginia 



i 



POCAHONTAS 



tas. This copy was made by William L. Shep- 
pard in 1891, who states that the original was 
then in the possession of Rev. Withwall Elwin, 
one of the Rolfe connections. That it was taken 
from life seems unquestioned, yet in it the little 
Virginia Princess does not look as we would 
rather picture her, for she is gowned in stiff bro- 
cade, both red and green, trimmed with gold 
braid, and altogether appears most uncomfort- 
able in the pale-face costume with its Elizabethan 
collar and derby hat. The hand is beautiful and 
much fairer than that of the redskin maid could 
possibly have been, and aside from the sad ex- 
pression of the face, a most pitiful touch is given 
by the awkward manner with which it holds a 
court fan of ostrich plumes. The nose is broad 
at the base, the cheek-bones high, the coloring 
swarthy, all in common with her Indian ances- 
tors; but the artist, whoever he was, must have 
made a grave error when he colored the heavy 
locks about her face deep auburn. Altogether, 
it is not a pleasing portrait, though it must al- 
ways hold one's interest by reason of the subject. 
It will be noted that in the inscription beneath 
Pocahontas is described as the wife of Thomas 
Rolfe ; the same mistake occurs in the death reg- 
ister of Gravesend Parish. In condemning such 

2 17 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 



errors, it is but fair to take into consideration 
the age, the newness of many things, and absence 
of the wonderful system which prevails in all 
things to-day. 

But we like best to think of the Indian maid 
as Sully shows her in his ideal portrait where he 
has given her a distant, rocky background. Her 
swarthy skin, thick black hair falling over her 
shoulders, and black eyes with soft grey lights, 
are all in sympathy ^^dth the purplish gown, the 
red-lined mantle, the amber beads, pearl ear- 
drops and ornaments. 

The one child of Pocahontas, Thomas Rolfe, 
was brought up in England by an uncle. In a 
letter wTitten to the London Company in 1617, 
the follo^ving allusion is made to Powhatan and 
his grandson: 

" Powhatan goes about \dsiting his country, 
taking his pleasure in good friendship wdth us: 
sorry for the death of his daughter, but glad her 
son is living. So does Opechancanough. They 
both wish to see the boy, but do not wish him to 
come to Virginia until he is a man." 

Nor did Thomas Rolfe visit America until 
1648, and then it was to link some of the most 
distinguished families of the new world to his 
Indian mother by marr\ang Jane Poythress; 



18 




JOHN BOLLING 

The grandson of Pocahontas 



e^^l^ .J^^ 




The Boiling Arms 



POCAHONTAS 



their daughter Jane Rolfe Poythress, married 
Colonel Robert Boiling. 

In 1804, Burke, the Virginia historian, said 
of the Boiling descendants of Pocahontas: "This 
remnant of the Imperial family of Virginia, 
which long ran in a single person, is now in- 
creased and branched out into a very numerous 
progeny. The virtues of mildness and human- 
ity, so eminently distinguished in Pocahontas, 
remain in the nature of an inheritance to her 
posterity. There is scarcely a scion from this 
stock which has not been in the highest degree 
amiable and respectable." The English had 
predicted a race of semi-savages from the union 
of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, but the portraits 
of the Boiling family, which hang upon the walls 
of the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, 
give ample testimony of the intelligence and bear- 
ing of the splendid race that owe their beginning 
to the redskin maid. 

There are those who look upon the life of 
Pocahontas as traditionary more than real, and 
to them one of her biographers may appeal : " It 
seems fitting that the career of the Lady Poca- 
hontas should have ended as it did. Had she 
returned to the hum-drum routine of the Virginia 
plantation, the incidents of her previous life 

19 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

risked obliteration in the commonplace of the 
succeeding years. As it is, the Stuart king is 
but a name to the majority of Americans; Rare 
Ben Johnson and the celebrities of that day 
scarcely more; but the name of the Virginia lady 
born, who kept life in the infant colony, from 
which sprang this mighty nation, traverses three 
centuries, and to-day is a household word with 
American people." 



ROBERT CARTER, OF 
COROTOMAN 



KING" CARTER 




F the distinguished names 
in America in the middle 
of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, none took prece- 
dence of Carter, which 
family was founded in 
Virginia in 1665. That 
John Carter, the first of 
the name in this country, was a man of promi- 
nence, old records prove, for his name is written 
in early American annals as a conspicuous mem- 
ber of the House of Burgesses, while a number 
of other offices came to him by virtue of his 
popularity among the Colonial landholders. So 
much for the father, for it remained for the son, 
Robert of Corotoman, to adorn the name with a 
brilliance that will never be dimmed. 

When the little boy was between five and six 
years of age, John Carter died, and the ambi- 
tion the father had for the son is amply proven 
in the former's will, where he provides for young 

21 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 



Robert's education. "He is to have a man or 
youth servant bought for him, that hath been 
brought up in the Latin school," the musty old 
parchment reads, " and that he (the servant) 
shall constantly tend upon him, not only to teach 
him his books, either in English or Latin, ac- 
cording to his capacity (for my will is that he 
shall learn both Latin and English, and to write) , 
and also to preserve him from harm and from 
doing evil." It would seem that tutor would 
have been a better word than " servant," though 
in those days the meaning of both words was 
frequently the same, as there were many unfor- 
tunates, both men and women, young and old, 
who were brought to America as indented 
sen^ants. 

The mother of Robert was Sarah Ludlow 
Carter, a woman of fortune, and this, with the 
magnificent 18,500-acre estate of his father, all 
fell to him, so the young landlord took up the 
reins of life under the brightest of stars. Born 
in 1663, he became of age just at a time when the 
planter was coming into his best, and so aris- 
tocratic was he in appearance, so rich in posses- 
sions, maintaining such a feudal system with 
his slaves and retainers upon his estate of " Coro- 
toman," that he seems to have been justly en- 




ELIZABETH HILL 
THE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW OF " KING ' CARTER 

From the Portrait Which Hangs at Brandon 



ROBERT CARTER, OF COROTOMAN 

titled to the sobriquet of " King," under which 
title his fame has come down in history and tra- 
dition for the benefit of newer generations. 
That Robert Carter was the first man of the 
Virginia Colony, a brief glance into his life will 
show. Beginning his political career of Speaker 
of the House of Burgesses, he soon became 
Treasurer of the Colony, and finally, President 
of the Council, as well as acting Governor of Vir- 
ginia. In short, any and every office was at the 
command of his ambition. 

But old " King " Carter possessed a deeper 
side than politics, for in nature he was sincerely 
religious, and, as the tomb placed to his memory 
says: "possessed of ample wealth, blamelessly 
acquired, he built and endowed at his own ex- 
pense, this sacred edifice — a signal monument of 
his piety towards God. He furnished it richly." 
The " sacred edifice " referred to still stands 
stolidly in Lancaster County, Virginia, and 
guards the old graveyard where its patron sleeps ; 
to-daj^ it is still owned by the " King's " descend- 
ants, who cherish it fondly in memory of him who 
gave it, and the family associations which cling 
as firmly to it as does the old English ivy to its 
walls. Robert Carter was also a bit of an auto- 
crat; he believed that a man should be the dis- 
ss 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

penser of wealth, just as he should be the head 
of his family, and in his official positions, he was 
rigorous upon the subject of rank and prece- 
dence. Though old Christ Church was built by 
him in the truest spirit of Christianity, he never- 
theless always accorded to himself first place in 
connection with it, and the story runs, that on 
Sundays no one was permitted to enter the doors 
until " King " Carter's arrival, after which the 
wide-eyed and admiring congregation would fol- 
low him inside, where he had reserved for all 
time the entire north cross of the building for 
the Carter family. 

Perhaps it was only natural that the old 
grandee should have been both arrogant and dic- 
tatorial. Things of vast import, honors, distinc- 
tions, fell to his portion with such ease that he 
must have grown to look upon himself as a very 
superior being, and while he had hosts of friends, 
he was not without bitter enemies, some of whom 
accused him of extortion in the execution of his 
duties as representative of the king. Shortly 
after the massive tombstone with its lengthy 
Latin epitaph had been placed over the mound 
beneath which he rested, some wag, who had his 
own great or small grievance against the 
" King," scrawled beneath the inscription : 

24 



ROBERT CARTER, OF COROTOMAN 

" Here lies Robin, but not Robin Hood, 
Here lies Robin that never was good. 
Here lies Robin that God has forsaken, 
Here lies Robin the Devil has taken." 

When one considers the number of marriages 
contracted by the early Carters, there is small 
reason for wonder that the name is so broadly 
spread throughout this country. The father of 
" King " Carter married only five times — surely, 
an unrivalled record. Robert, himself, had two 
wives, Judith Armistead and Betty Landon, 
while his son, Landon, was thrice wedded. 

When Robert Carter died, in 1772, he left a 
princely fortune consisting of 10,000 pounds 
sterling, 1000 slaves, and more than 300,000 
acres of land to be divided among his children, 
twelve of whom had been given him. Nor was 
this land a barren wilderness, as some misguided 
persons seem to think, for upon the broad acres 
were three noble country seats: Corotoman, 
Nominy Hall, and Sabine Hall ; but of the three 
mansions, the latter alone remains. More than 
once did this Colonial grandee visit England, and 
it was upon some of these occasions that two 
superb portraits of him were painted. That 
which shows him as a man in the prime of life 
hangs in the corridor of " Sabine Hall," still 

25 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

owned by his direct descendants. It is attributed 
to Sir Joshua Reynolds, but no matter whom the 
artist may have been, it is a most pleasing piece of 
work. In this portrait, the " King " is pictured 
as a man of thirty-five or thereabouts and wears 
a picturesque riding costume with lace cravat and 
sleeve ruffles indicative of that particular period. 
The other canvas is supposed to have been done 
by Sir Godfrey Kneller, and shows the aristo- 
cratic old Virginian with traces of years upon 
him ; the face is rather young, being entirely with- 
out lines, but the droop of the shoulder and port- 
liness of the figure betray the age. He wears 
in this a reddish velvet costume which has been 
washed with grey by the succeeding years ; neither 
coat nor waistcoat is ornamented beyond a very 
modest bit of gilt braid, the color of which has 
sunk into the canvas. A soft mull shirt, the 
sleeves of which end in a frill at the wrist, is re- 
lieved at the neck by a low collar. A heavy wig 
parted severely in the middle clings close to his 
face, the most prominent feature of which is the 
chin set with a steadfast determination. This 
portrait is at " Shirley," one of the oldest Carter 
homesteads, which lies along the James River, 
in Virginia. 

There is another reputed likeness of Robert 

26 




"KING" CARTKR 

PVom the Portrait by Mr. Carter of Georgia 



ROBERT CARTER, OF COROTOMAN 

Carter, and while it was executed by a modern 
artist and has not yet been softened by the coat 
of time, it is both beautiful and well done. This 
last hangs upon the walls of the Governor's 
Mansion in Richmond, and is known as 
"King Carter as a Young Man"; it portrays 
a high-bred, graceful figure clothed in rich ma- 
roon velvet, leaning carelessly against a ma- 
hogany table, the left hand resting easily upon 
the hilt of a sword. The face is strikingly hand- 
some with its luminous eyes, patrician nose and 
firm mouth, the scornful curve of which could 
well melt into one of pity and sympathy. In 
this painting, " King " Carter appears more as 
a debonair cavalier than in the other two, and 
while it is not considered positively authentic, the 
story that goes with it points towards its being 
a likeness of the princely landowner. 

Mr. Carter, of Georgia, the artist from whose 
brush it came, claims descent from the famous 
Colonist, and states that the portrait was taken 
from a miniature or photograph of an old por- 
trait which came down in his family. 

" King " Carter belonged to the most pic- 
turesque generation America has known. An al- 
most feudal system was maintained on his vast 
estates; he knew no superior in point of intel- 

27 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 



lect or distinction; he was blessed by the gods 
in smaller as well as greater ways, and when he 
closed his eyes upon the brilliant world he had 
always known, he left, for the country he had 
helped to make, a name that is rich in history and 
tradition. 



WILLIAM BYRD 




N the twenty-eighth day of 
March, in 1674, at a 
time when life in the new 
country was precarious 
from many points of 
view, a man was born in 
the colony of Virginia 
who was destined to 
write his name in the history of that early 
and wonderful period. Called William Byrd 
II, and the son of the William Byrd who came 
to Virginia the very year he was born, the name 
of the father has always been dimmed in con- 
trast to that of his famous son. 

Of an aristocratic connection in England, 
young Byrd was sent to London to be educated, 
and while there formed the friendship of such 
men as the Duke of Argyle, all of whom proved 
their affection by presenting him with their por- 
traits; to-day these portraits hang in the ances- 
tral halls of the Harrisons, at " Brandon," on 
James Biver, owned by descendants of William 

29 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

Byrd, and form the largest collection of family 
portraits in any private gallery in the country. 

The life pursued by the debonair Virginian 
in London was very gay in accordance with the 
times. George II was king of Great Britain, 
and ruled a pleasure-loving Court, at which place 
young Byrd seems to have been a welcome guest. 
However, when his father died, in 1704, he re- 
turned to America and took possession of the 
plantation of " Westover," on the James, where 
he laid the foundation of one of the greatest for- 
tunes in the colony. From the first William 
Byrd he inherited 26,2^31 acres of land with 
ample means to maintain it, and when, in 1706, 
he married Lucy Parke, the daughter of Colonel 
Daniel Parke, arrogant Governor of the Lee- 
ward Isles, a goodly sum was added to his pos- 
sessions. Riches seemed to come unsought to 
this young cavalier who was so fitted to adorn 
and enjoy them, and his first sorrow came in the 
death of his wife, which occurred in London in 
1716, leaving to him the care of two little girls. 

From that time until 1726 he remained 
abroad; his daughter, Evelyn, was the reigning 
belle at the Court of St. James; his intimates 
were those of the highest nobility; his fortune 
was sufficient to gratify his every whim, and 

30 



WILLIAM BYRD 



once more life seemed all joy and sunshine to 
him. To crown all this, in 1724 he married 
Maria Taylor, an English heiress, and in 1726 
came back to Virginia where he seems to have 
spent the remainder of his days. 

The handsome Virginian was past master of 
the art of love affairs, some of which he boldly 
wrote of and others at which vague hints were 
whispered. If he was attractive to all sorts and 
conditions of men, he was amazingly so to 
women, for his almond eyes were as admiring as 
they were scornful, and his chin was cleft with 
the dimple said to be fatal to the peace of mind 
of woman. 

The second William Byrd of " Westover " 
was, unquestionably, the most conspicuous fig- 
ure of Colonial days. Not only was he Receiver- 
General of His Majesty's revenues, but was 
three times appointed public agent to the Court 
of Great Britain, finally being made President 
of the Virginia Council. Politically, he stood 
supreme; socially, he was the arbiter; and intel- 
lectually, he was gifted far beyond the majority 
of his generation. No scholar could wi'ite bet- 
ter English than William Byrd, as is proved in 
his journal known as " The Westover Manu- 
scripts," the original of which is treasured at 

31 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

old " Brandon." No wit could turn a more apt 
speech; no beau could make a prettier compli- 
ment, nor could any fop boast more elegant cos- 
tumes than this first gentleman of Virginia who 
wrote his name so firmly that it will always be 
read in the annals of America, and maintained 
such boundless, cheerful hospitality upon his 
broad acres as to be always called " The Genial 
Seigneur." 

He was an ardent agriculturist as well as a 
keen sportsman. He was as good a patriot as 
he was courtly cavalier, and with infinite tact 
knew full well when the time was ripe for lace 
sleeve ruffles and gold snufF boxes or when to 
put these trifles of the beau monde away. V^ith 
his vivid brain, his ample purse and gifted pen, 
Colonel Byrd stood ever ready to serve the 
province and its king. 

The splendid residence of William Byrd is 
thus described by an early historian: " Westover, 
long the seat of the distinguished family of 
Byrds, is on the James River. It was originally 
the residence of Col. William Byrd, where he 
long lived. In his time, it was a beautifully 
decorated and princely mansion, which even at 
this late day exhibits admirable remains of his 
taste, and his magnificent scale of expenditure 

32 




THE FATHER OF COLONEL WILLIAM BYRD 

As a Child 




COLONEL WILLIAM BYRD 
From the Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller 



V 



WILLIAM BYRD 



for its gratification. Col. Byrd was the author 
of ' The History of the Dividing Line,' and 
one of the most accomplished men in Virginia 
at his day. He was a worthy inheritor of the 
opinions and feelings of its old cavaliers. He 
was for 37 years a member, and at last became 
President of the Council of the colony. He died 
in 1744, at the age of 70 years. His grave is 
covered by a white marble monument which yet 
stands at Westover. The Marquis de Chastel- 
lux, who was here in 1782, gives in his travels a 
glowing description of Westover, which he says 
surpassed all the seats in the country round 
about." The time-stained marble which marks 
his resting place tells in mossy letters that he 
was born to one of the amplest fortunes in the 
country and sent to England to be educated 
under the care of Sir Robert Southwell, who 
ever favored him with his " particular instruc- 
tions." It tells us, too, that " he made a happy 
proficiency in polite and various learning," and 
that through the same noble friend he became 
acquainted with the first persons of the age, 
" for knowledge, wit, virtue, birth, or high sta- 
tion, and particularly contracted a most intimate 
and bosom friendship with the learned and il- 
lustrious Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery." On 
3 33 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

another side, we read that he was called to the 
Bar in the Middle Temple, visited the Court of 
France, and was made a member of the Royal 
Society. " Thus," runs the epitaph, " eminently 
fitted for the service and ornament of his coun- 
try, he was made Receiver-General of his 
Majesty's revenues here, was thrice appointed 
publick agent to the Court and Ministry of Eng- 
land, and being thirty-seven years a member, 
at last became President of the Council of the 
Colony. To all this were added a great elegancy 
and taste of life, the well bred gentleman and 
polite companion, the splendid economist and 
prudent father of a family, withal the constant 
enemy of all exorbitant power, and hearty 
friend to the liberties of his Country." 

A little kingdom was left behind as the result 
of his accumulations, for his estate included about 
180,000 acres crowned with the richest mansion 
in America and tilled by hundreds of black 
slaves. 

Much has been written of William Byrd, one 
historian saying: " He was one of the brightest 
stars in the social sky of Virginia. All desir- 
able traits seemed to combine in him: personal 
beauty, elegant manners, literary culture and the 

greatest gayety of disposition. Never was there 

3:4 



WILLIAM BYRD 



a livelier companion, and his wit and humor 
seemed to flow in an unfailing stream. It is a 
species of jovial grand seigneur and easy master 
of all the graces we see in the person of this 
author planter on the banks of the James 
River." 

What a picture tliis cavalier planter must have 
presented in his velvet clothes and curling wig 
as he gayly penned the pages of the interesting 
manuscript that is so time-worn and yellow now. 
Surely, as an old writer chronicles: "His path 
through life was a path of roses. He had wealth, 
culture, the best private library in America, so- 
cial consideration, and hosts of friends." 

In this library there were three thousand, six 
hundred and twenty-five volumes, and glancing 
at its catalogue, one can but appreciate the ef- 
fort it must have been to gather such a splendid 
collection of books in that early age of the new 
country. 

Again, we read: " He left behind him not only 
the reputation of a good citizen, but that of the 
great Virginia wit and author of the century." 
In " The Westover Manuscripts," the most noted 
of which are " The History of the Dividing 
Line," " A Progress to the Mines " and " A 
Journey to the Land of Eden," one encounters 

36 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

many amusing paragraphs as well as much in- 
teresting history. When William Byrd was 
travelling with the first bold surveyors of the 
great Dismal Swamp of Virginia, his attention 
was attracted by the manners and customs of 
the struggling families who had found their way 
into that wild and desolate region. Writing of 
their religions, he says: "For want of men in 
Holy Orders, both the Members of the Council 
and Justices of the Peace are empower'd by the 
laws of that Country to marry all those who will 
not take One another's Word: but for the cere- 
mony of Christening their children, they trust 
that to chance. If a Parson come in their way, 
they will crave a Cast of his office, as they call 
it, else they are content their Offspring should 
remain arrant Pagans as themselves. They 
count it among their greatest advantages that 
they are not Priest-ridden, not remembering that 
the Clergj^ is rarely guilty of Bestriding such as 
have the misfortune to be poor. One thing may 
be said of the Inhabitants of that Province, that 
they are not troubled with any Religious Fumes, 
and have the least Superstition of any people 
living. They do not know Sunday from any 
other day, any more than Robinson Crusoe did, 
which would give them a great advantage were 

36 



WILLIAM BYRD 



they given to be industrious. But they keep so 
many Sabbaths every week, that their disregard 
of the Seventh Day has no manner of cruelty in 
it, either to Servants or Cattle." The sense of 
humor of the writer is very apparent in these 
lines, which also prove him to have been a keen 
observer of human nature. 

Describing some of the early residents of 
North Carolina, in the " Dividing Line," he 
paints for us a very vivid picture of their indo- 
lence. " They make their Wives rise out of their 
Beds early in the morning," he says, " at the 
same time that they lye and Snore, till the Sun 
has run one third of his course, and dispersed 
all the imwholesome Damps. Then, after 
Stretching and Yawning for half an Hour, they 
light their Pipes, and, under the Protection of 
a cloud of Smoak, venture out into the open Air ; 
tho', if it happens to be never so little cold, they 
quickly return Shivering into the Chimney cor- 
ner. When the Weather is mild, they stand lean- 
ing with both their arms upon the corn-field fence, 
and gravely consider whether they had best go 
and take a Small Heat at the Hough ; but gen- 
erally find reasons to put it off till another time." 
Further on, this dandy of King George's Court 
announces that these same countrymen of his 

37 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

sweeten their coffee with a cheap molasses which 
they call " Long Sugar," while they entertain 
their friends with a hideous beverage known as 
Bombo Punch, a compound of " Kill-Devil " 
rum, water, and long sweetening. 

Page after page is easily read in this enter- 
taining manuscript, for William Byrd possessed 
not only the education to fit an author but the 
talent for telling things, no matter how dry, 
humorously. " We talkt over a Legend of old 
Storys," he writes in describing a night spent at 
the house of Governor Spotswood, " supp'd 
about 9, and then prattl'd with the Ladys, til 
'twas time for a Travellour to retire. . . . We 
all kept Snug in our several apartments till 
Nine. Having employ'd about 2 hours in Re- 
tirement, I Sally'd out at the first Summons to 
Breakfast, where our conversation with the 
Ladys, like Whip Sillabub, was very pretty, but 
had nothing in it." 

The explorations of this courtier of King 
George resulted in opening up an extensive and 
unknown country to emigration, which was 
eagerly seized by the Swiss and Germans to the 
everlasting benefit of America. 

Blessed with political prominence, untold 
riches; with the highest social prestige and the 

38 



WILLIAM BYRD 



most beautiful daughter of the colony, Colonel 
William Byrd must have found it hard to leave 
his fair estate. In 1744, when he was seventy 
years of age, he went to sleep forever beneath 
the old monument which dominates the quaint 
Westover garden, and which, in a marvellously 
long epitaph, gives to the world a list of his 
virtues and of his friends. 

The portrait which lives to tell this generation 
what this genial seigneur was in person, is said 
to have been painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 
and hangs next that of his daughter Evelyn in 
the rare old mansion at Brandon. It portrays 
one of the haughtiest types of the Colonial 
Cavalier; a flowing peruke of Queen Anne's day 
falls over his shoulder, outlining in a wavy 
fashion the scornful face which is singularly 
handsome. The whole bearing is that of an auto- 
crat, a man of fashion and of the gay world, a 
man to whom disappointment and trouble would 
seem to be unknown ; to whom the pleasant came 
easily and who held himself second to none. 

The one great bit of condemnation to be held 
against Colonel William Byrd is his tyrannical 
treatment of his favorite child, Evelyn. That 
he loved her, there is no more doubt than that 
he was intensely proud of her, and yet, for some 

39 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

miserable reason, some personal pique, he with- 
held from her the one great happiness she so 
piteously craved, forcing upon her a broken 
heart and an early grave. We cannot under- 
stand the Genial Seigneur, and must always 
wonder the eternal — why? The very brillianc}'^ 
of his life is lost sight of in this contemplation, 
and as we put from our minds the thought 
of this famous man of Colonial times, it is 
with a deep feeling of pity for the daughter he 
sacrificed. 



MARY BALL 

MADAME AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON 




O-D AY the visitor 
to old Fredericksburg, 
Virginia, loiters in 
front of a monument 
placed on the outskirts 
of the town, a marble 
shaft which rises to- 
^ wards the heavens to 
awaken revery and wonder of her who blessed her 
country as no other woman ever can, and who 
sleeps for eternity beneath the stone inscribed in 
appreciative simplicity : 

" Mary, the Mother of Washington." 

What a powerful meaning lies between those 
few words! What a glorious distinction, for, 
to have been the mother of George Washington 
was the highest honor that could come to any 
American woman. Yet, it is a curious and withal 
a piteous fact that too few of these later genera- 
tions know very much of Mary Ball, splendid 
though she was. 

41 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

Less than one century after the settlement of 
this new country, in 1706, Mary, the youngest 
daughter of Colonel William Ball, was born, 
and nothing could have been farther from the 
thoughts of the fond parents of the little girl 
than that, under her care, was to be moulded 
the character of one whose name is irrevocably 
associated with that of the Republic he helped 
so materially to create. Colonel William Ball, 
the first of the line in America, came from Eng- 
land about 1650 and settled in Lancaster County, 
Virginia. According to Bishop Meade, he came 
of a fine old English family who bore as arms: 
" a lion rampant with a globe in his paws; a hel- 
met and shield, and vizor; a coat of mail, and 
other things betokening strength and courage; 
and for a motto, words from a line of Ovid: 
' Coelumque Tueri.' " 

The plantation home along the shores of the 
Rappahannock River expressed all the world 
to the Colonial maid who knew so little of things 
beyond. At the time she lived, there Avas in 
America a scarcity of much that is now essen- 
tial, including education, so what book learning 
little Mary had came to her in shreds and 
patches; the same tale could have been told of 
all the young girls of that particular period, for 

43 




MARY BALL 
MADAME AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON 

From the Portrait by Thomas Hudson 



MARY BALL 



Berkeley was then Governor of Virginia, and 
he it was who thanked God that the Colony was 
not only free of schools and printing presses, but 
hoped it would always remain in that pitiable 
condition. Considering the circumstances, one 
marvels not at a misspelled word here and there 
or a faulty bit of grammar, as it is opportunity 
that must always govern education. 

But while her splendid mind was being but 
poorly fed, Mary Ball was developing into a 
maiden of such loveliness that she became known 
throughout the Colony as the beautiful " Rose 
of Epping Forest," and belle of the Northern 
Neck. 

In the year 1722, a young girl at whose home 
she had been a guest, wrote of her to another 
friend : 

"Dear Sukey: 

" Madame Ball, of Lancaster, and Her Sweet 
Molly have gone Home, Mamma thinks Molly 
the Comliest Maiden She Knows. She is about 
16 yrs. old, is taller than Me, is very sensible. 
Modest & Loving. Her Hair is like unto 
Flax, Her Eyes are the color of Yours, and her 
Chekes are like May blossoms. I wish you could 
see Her." 

43 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

Eight years after the above quaint letter was 
Avritten, in 1730, on the sixth day of March, 
Mary Ball became the second wife of Augustine 
Washington. It is generally believed that for 
some time previous to her marriage she had been 
living in England with her brother Joseph, and 
though there is no positive assurance, it is more 
than likely that the wedding took place abroad, 
bringing the fair " Rose of Epping Forest " 
back to Virginia as a bride. In any event, her 
first home as Madame Washington was upon her 
husband's estate along the Potomac River, and 
here, two years later, in the winter of 1732, 
George Washington was born. 

Unquestionably, the superior characteristics of 
the mother played a great part in the molding 
of the son, and had Washington possessed a dif- 
ferent sort of parent, his name might never have 
been so bravely written upon the pages of 
American history. Mary Ball's life was one of 
such quiet domesticity, such conservative retire- 
ment, that she is known principally in Colonial 
annals as the mother of Washington. Wise be- 
yond her generation, generous and unselfish by 
nature, her maternal care of one of the grandest 
characters the world has produced proved her 
worthy of all honors and distinctions. Of 

44 



MARY BALL 



Madame Washington's relations to her son, it has 
been written: " In her Spartan school she taught 
him to become good — that he became great was a 
consequence, not the cause." Washington him- 
self said: " All that I am I owe to my mother." 
The ancients claimed that it was the mother who 
gave tone to the character of the child, and in this 
instance that may well be believed. Instead of 
230ssessing mere worldly ambitions, Mary Ball 
Washington moulded her life and that of her son 
along the lines of simple discipline, moderation 
and propriety, and though she was in no sense 
averse to the boy's having a certain amount of 
play time, she insisted that whatever duties he 
had should be first performed, requiring above 
all, absolute obedience towards herself. 

Lawrence Washington gives us a glimpse of 
the home life of this remarkable woman: " I was 
often there with George, his playmate, school- 
mate, and young man's companion. Of the 
mother I was ten times more afraid than I ever 
was of my own parents. She awed me in the 
midst of her kindness, for she was, indeed, truly 
kind. I have often been present with her sons, 
proper, tall fellows, too, and we were all as mute 
as mice; and even now, when time has whitened 
my locks, and I am the grand-parent of a second 

45 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

generation, I could not behold that remarkable 
woman without feelings it is impossible to de- 
scribe. Whoever has seen that awe-inspiring air 
and manner so characteristic in the Father of his 
Country, will remember the matron as she ap- 
peared when the presiding genius of her well- 
ordered household, commanding and being 
obeyed." 

As wonderful as it was in those times of trial 
and hardship, of Indian warfare and isolation, 
Mary Washington never once stood between her 
son and what he conceived to be his duty. Time 
and again she must have felt the keenest anxiety, 
for beneath her cold and dignified exterior, her 
heart beat with deep affection for her children, 
particularly this son. But when they felt the 
call of the world, she never tried to keep them 
at home, and her parting words to George when, 
as a youth of sixteen, he left the plantation to try 
his fortune abroad, were typical of the woman: 
" Remember, George, God only is our sure trust; 
to Him I commend you." 

When the Revolutionarj^ War cloud loomed 
black upon the Colonial horizon, Mary Washing- 
ton was induced to move to Fredericksburg ; and 
here again her true character displayed itself. 
Though her daughter, Betty, Mrs. Fielding 

46 



MARY BALL 



Lewis, lived in the handsomest mansion in that 
town and besought her mother to go to her, the 
latter declined firmly, saying that while she ap- 
preciated the dutiful offer, she felt competent 
to care for herself, so chose a quiet little cottage 
where, till the end, she lived alone. 

Not content with the mere management of her 
household, Madame Washington personally su- 
pervised her farm near Fredericksburg, and with 
the exception of Sunday, rarely a day passed 
that she did not visit this plantation, out to which 
she drove herself in a modest, two-wheeled 
chaise from which she viewed the work as it pro- 
gressed and issued her commands to the over- 
seer. Nothing escaped her from the smallest de- 
tails, and when any of her employees dared 
change an order of hers, he was at once severely 
rebuked with the words : " I command you, there 
is nothing left but for you to obey." 

It may be interesting to her sister women to 
note that this unusual woman in whom were so 
well blended religious trust, will-power, and 
physical ability, acknowledged an unconquerable 
fear of thunder storms, and when one arose, 
would hide her eyes from the sight of the light- 
ning. This intense fear was born in her through 
the tragic death of a girl friend who was instantly 

47 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

killed by a stroke of lightning as she sat by her 
side at the dinner table. 

Mary Ball had reached the ripe age of seventy- 
five when Lord Cornwallis surrendered to the 
Continentals at Yorktown, and the first thought 
of the victorious general was to notify his mother 
in person of the great event which was to lend to 
his name for always first place in the book of 
American history. One of the best of Wash- 
ington's many biographers thus describes the 
meeting between mother and son: "Alone and 
on foot the General-in-Chief of the combined 
armies of France and America, the deliverer of 
his country, the hero of the age, repaired to pay 
his humble tribute of duty to her whom he vene- 
rated as the author of his being, the founder of 
his fortunes and his fame, for full well he knew 
that the matron was made of sterner stuff than 
to be moved by all the pride that glory ever 
gave, and all the pomp and circumstance of 
power. She was alone, her aged hands employed 
in the works of domestic industry, when the good 
news was announced and it was told that the 
victor was awaiting at the threshold. She bade 
him welcome by a warm embrace and by the well 
remembered and endearing name of George — 
the familiar name of his childhood. She inquired 

48 



MARY BALL 



as to his health, for she marked the lines which 
mighty cares and many toils had made in his 
manly comitenance, and she spoke much of old 
times and old friends, but of his glory, not one 
word." Can we wonder at Washington's success, 
with such a mother? 

Again we read of this woman among women, 
and this time she is at the brilliant ball given 
in Fredericksburg to the conqueror of the 
British. Entering the gay assemblage upon the 
arm of her distinguished son, she brought ex- 
pressions of amazement to the lips of the foreign 
officers when they saw her quiet garb and sim- 
ple, unaffected manner. She accepted the un- 
stinted compliments to herself and to her son 
without the least elevation, and left the scene of 
gayety at a very early hour, remarking smil- 
ingly that it was high time for " old folks to be 
in bed." 

" Ah," declared one of the Frenchmen, " if 
such are the matrons of America, well may she 
boast of illustrious sons." This was a new spec- 
tacle to European eyes, the matter-of-fact way 
with which Mary Washington received the glory 
which was destined to blaze upon her son until 
the end of time. 

When Lafayette w^as visiting America, in 

4 49 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

1784, he was anxious to again see the mother of 
his chief, and repaired to Fredericksburg solely 
for that purpose. He found her in the garden, 
dressed in a simple home-spun gown and wear- 
ing a broad-brimmed straw hat ; but, true to her 
character, she was not in the least perturbed 
when she realized who her distinguished visitor 
was. Instead of apologizing, she met him with a 
frank smile and words of genuine welcome: 
" Ah, Marquis, you see an old woman; but come 
in, I can make you welcome to my poor dwell- 
ing without the parade of changing my dress." 
After Lafayette had finished a eulogy upon the 
great virtues of General Washington, her 
response was simply: "I am not surprised 
at what George has done, for he was always a 
good boy." 

Happily, Mary Ball lived to see this " good 
boy " honored with the Presidency, and when 
that office had been accepted by General Wash- 
ington, he immediately went to Fredericksburg 
to apprise her of the distinction accorded him, 
and to bid her farewell before leaving for New 
York. Madame Washington was then eighty- 
two and in very poor health, and the way she was 
rapidly breaking sadly affected him, though he 
strove not to show it. " The people, madam," 

50 



IklARY BALL 



he said, " have been pleased, with the most flat- 
tering unanimity, to elect me to the chief magis- 
tracy of these United States, but before I can 
assume the functions of my ofRce, I have come 
to bid you an affectionate farewell. So soon 
as the weight of public business, which must 
necessarily attend the outset of a new govern- 
ment, can be disposed of, I shall hasten to Vir- 
ginia, and " Here Mary Washington in- 
terrupted him with the words: "And you will 
see me no more; my great age, and the disease 
which is fast approaching my vitals, warn me 
that I shall not be long in this world; I trust 
in God that I may be somewhat prepared for a 
better. But go, George, fulfil the high des- 
tinies which Heaven appears to have intended 
you for; go, my son, and may that Heaven's 
and a mother's blessing be with you always." 
Her words proved true, and three years 
later, at the ripe age of eighty-five, Mary Ball 
Washington was carried to her eternal resting 
place. 

There is a supposed portrait of Mary Ball 
in existence, and though at times there is a link 
lost in the story told of it, historians who care- 
fully studied the matter, agree in pronoimcing 
it the likeness of " The Rose of Epping Forest " 

61 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

from the brush of Thomas Hudson. This por- 
trait shows her at the age of twenty-three or 
four, and is a three-quarter length figure seated ; 
the costume is one of those Sir Godfrey Kneller 
loved to paint, with its low-cut neck and loosely 
hung sleeves. In color, it may once have been 
old gold, which was in happy contrast to the grey- 
blue eyes and tightly-curled auburn hair which 
falls over her sloping shoulders. The comely 
face, in its general expression, at once suggests 
that of her renowned son. 

Notwithstanding her many years, she took 
with her to the grave great strength of endur- 
ance, simple dignity of manner and a cheerful 
spirit. Frequently she talked of Washington as 
a good son, reciting the merits of his dutiful early 
life, but of the deliverer of his country and the 
first executive of a great republic, she never 
spoke a word. 

They buried her in the secluded spot half 
hidden by trees and rocks where she had daily 
gone for prayer and meditation. The ground 
belonged to her son-in-law. Colonel Fielding 
Lewis, and the place was the one she herself had 
chosen for the silent sleep of death. For nearly 
half a century the simple grave remained un- 
marked by slab or stone, but in 1833, Mr. Silas E. 

53 



MARY BALL 



Burrows, of New York, undertook to raise a fit- 
ting monument at his personal expense. Appro- 
priate ceremonies attended the laying of the cor- 
ner-stone, President Andrew Jackson placing it 
in the presence of a great crowd of people and 
military escort, saying as the stone fell: " Fel- 
low-citizens, at your request, and in your name, 
I now deposit this plate in the spot destined for 
it ; and when the American pilgrim shall, in after 
ages, come up to this high and holy place, and 
lay his hand upon this sacred column, may he re- 
call the virtues of her who sleeps beneath, and 
depart with his affections purified, and his pity 
strengthened, while he invokes blessings upon 
the memory of the mother of Washington." 

Sadly enough, though the obelisk had been 
carried to the grave and the base set up, the 
tomb remained unfinished for still another space 
of years, and it was not until 1889, when all 
America was united in celebrating the centen- 
nial of Washington's inauguration, that money 
was raised to erect a new monument. The 
original had been badly riddled by bullets dur- 
ing the Civil War and hacked and scarred by 
vandal relic seekers of later date. On March 
2, 1889, a fearful advertisement regarding a pro- 
posed sale of the grave of Mary Washington 

63 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

stung the nation to fury and set in motion among 
the women of the country the patriotic movement 
which happily resulted in the erection of a spot- 
less obelisk, which was dedicated May 10, 1894. 
" The State and the Federal governments con- 
templated, discussed and postponed it," said 
Senator Daniel, " our noble women undertook it 
and it was done." And in his address that day, 
the " Lame Lion of Virginia " eulogized the 
mother of Washington as few others could have 
done. " Eternal dignity and heavenly grace 
dwell upon the brow of this blessed mother; nor 
burnished gold nor sculptured stone nor rhythmic 
praise could add one jot or tittle to her chaste 
glory. She was simply a private citizen. No 
sovereign's crown rested on her brow. She did 
not lead an army, like Joan of Arc, nor slay a 
tyrant, like Charlotte Corday. She was not 
versed in letters nor in arts. She was not an 
angel of mercy, like Florence Nightingale, nor 
the consort of a hero like the mother of Napo- 
leon. But from the light that streamed from the 
deeds of him she bore, we would doubtless have 
never heard the name of Mary Washington, and 
the grass upon this grave had not been disturbed 
by curious footsteps or reverential hands." 
And as we close the chapter of a life that can 

54 



MARY BALL 



never suffer by a comparison, the words of a 
distinguished Roman gentleman ring in our 
memory: " She was the most fortunate of 
American matrons in having given to her coun- 
try and to the world, a hero without ambition, 
and a patriot without reproach." 



EVELYN BYRD 




£) N the early part of the 
eighteenth century, 
about the year 1720, a 
gentleman of great 
wealth returned from 
England, bringing 
Avith him, in his own 
sailing vessel, his young 
daughter whose presentation had shortly before 
taken place at the Court of St. James, and 
about whose beauty and charm the fashionable 
tongues of two countries were wagging. 

This gentleman was none other than the Hon- 
orable William Byrd, while the high-bred maiden 
who sat so passively beside him in his gilded coach 
as it rolled to his vast plantation, was the beau- 
tiful Evelyn, fresh from her triumphs abroad to 
try her fortune at the gay little Colonial Capital 
of Williamsburg. 

Evelyn, the daughter of Colonel William and 
Lucy Parke Byrd, was born in 1708, upon her 
father's fair estate of Westover in Virginia, and 
though other children came to him, it was al- 
ways this beautiful daughter who held first place 

56 



EVELYN BYRD 



in his heart. As a child, the little Evelyn had 
her own corps of black attendants; when she 
rowed upon the river, it was in a galley manned 
by stalwart negro oarsmen; when she dined, an 
ebony page stood stolidly behind her chair, while 
her women servants were many, from the old 
black mammy, to the errand girl of contem- 
porary age. Never was a life more joyous and 
care free than that led by this little Virginia 
maid. 

When she was about eight years old, her 
father had her brought to London where he then 
was staying, and in a time-worn letter to his 
great friend, the Honorable John Custis, dated 
1714, he speaks of his plans for her. " My 
daughter Evelyn has arrived safe, thank God, 
and I hope I shall manage her in such a manner 
that she may be no discredit to her country." 

That the haughty Virginian realized this fond 
wish, all social history of the early eighteenth 
century proves, for when, after as good a school- 
ing as could be gained in Europe, Evelyn Byrd, 
at sixteen, made her initial bow before George 
II, the Hanoverian monarch exclaimed in 
amazement: " Are there many other as beautiful 
birds in the forests of America?" Perhaps it 
was this play upon words that suggested to Sir 

57 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

Godfrey Kneller the pretty thought of paint- 
ing in the background of his superb portrait of 
JNIistress Evelyn a cardinal bird. 

This exquisite likeness of America's greatest 
Colonial belle represents her in a gown of sil- 
very blue fashioned without adornment save at 
the low neck, where a ruffle of the satin falls; 
the tight sleeves reach only to the elbow where 
they are finished with a frill. The poise of the 
figure is queenly almost to haughtiness ; the dark 
brown hair, so plainly dressed, is carried back 
severely from the forehead to end in a loose curl 
over the right shoulder, and into it a tiny rose 
and bit of star jessamine nestle shyly. The 
slender hands with such tapering fingers show 
very plainly that they could never have accom- 
plished a harder task than that in which the fair 
young girl is engaged — wreathing a chain of 
wild flowers about the crown of her leghorn hat. 
The neck is flawless, the shoulders a bit sloping; 
the throat full, yet slender. But even all this 
beauty may, perhaps, be overlooked when one's 
glance reaches the lovely face; oval in shape, lit 
by sad brown eyes set obliquely, the high-bred 
nose and sweetly drooping mouth recall to the 
mind of the observer the cause of the piteous, re- 
signed expression. 

58 



EVELYN BYRD 



There is more than one story of the love affair 
that brought so soon to a close the life of Evelyn 
Byrd. Some old writers would have us believe 
that she pined for her cousin, Daniel Parke 
Custis, whom her father was eager to have her 
marry, and who later became the husband of 
Martha Dandridge. Others say that it was for 
the old Earl of Peterborough, a roue of sixty 
years, though this is given little credence; the 
girl was too fair, too innocent for that. The 
most probable version of all seems that in which 
Charles Mordaunt, grandson and heir of the old 
Lord Peterborough, figures. That these two 
met to love each other, can well be believed; 
Mordaunt was noble, manly, as handsome as a 
Greek god; Evelyn Byrd was aristocratic, 
wealthy, beautiful, and had drawn the eyes of 
the world towards her, and in the match the 
smart world, with one exception, seems to have 
seen perfection: that exception — the haughty 
father of the would-be bride. 

Though William Byrd and Lord Peterbor- 
ough had been staunch friends, something came 
to pass which changed them into the bitterest of 
enemies; some say it was cards, others religion, 
and again a darker reason is hinted. Be that as 
it may, Colonel Byrd refused to sanction the 

59 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

love affair, and regardless of the triumphs she 
was leaving, brought his daughter back to West- 
over to die of a broken heart. Accustomed in 
every way to obey her father, the sad girl made 
no remonstrance, but accepted the fate which 
robbed her of her life. Her beauty, if changed 
at all, was made greater by the suffering heart 
it hid; for admirers she never lacked; for belle- 
dom she was created; but as her father never 
withdrew his tyranny, though he saw her life 
slipping away day by day, neither did Evelyn 
ever falter in her devotion to Charles Mordaunt, 
and after a few pitiful years the light of West- 
over went out all too soon, and Evelyn Byrd 
was but a memory, she herself having gone into 
the irrevocable eternity. 

Of this lovely maid of Colonial days, whose 
innocence and naivete never suffered from con- 
tact with the gayest of courts, one of William 
Byrd's biographers says: " Her hand was kissed 
by my Lords Oxford and Chesterfield ; of whom 
sneering Harvey deigned to approve; who 
supped with Pope at his Twickenham villa, 
while yet the town was ringing with the success 
of his Odyssey; who was noticed by Beau Nash, 
the autocrat of Bath; who saw Cibber and Mrs. 
Oldfield play; who read Gulliver's Travels as 

60 



EVELYN BYRD 



they were first presented to the public by his 
reverence the dean of St. Patrick's, then resident 
in Dublin; who from the presence-chamber of 
unroyal royalty, through a society reeking with 
wine and musk and snufF and scandal, passed 
back to her plantation home in the new country 
as unblemished as she came." 

At beautiful old Brandon, where Sir Godfrey 
Kneller's famous portrait hangs, there is entered 
in an aged family record just opposite the name 
of Evelyn Byrd: "Refusing all offers from 
other gentlemen, she died of a broken heart." 

A sigh is the outcome of the thoughts upon the 
sad life of the wistful girl whose years should 
have been so many and so fair. Through the 
quiet corners of old Westover, up and down its 
broad stairway, softly glides sometimes an 
ethereal figure said to be Evelyn Byrd. Those 
who sleep in the room that was hers when a 
little Colonial maid and to which she returned 
from the brilliant English Court, admit visits 
from the long dead beauty who comes as gently 
as she did in life. There are some who say they 
have felt the light touch of her exquisite fingers, 
others who have seen the white wraith hover 
near one of her favorite haunts; but there are 
none who fear the ghostly presence of the tender, 

61 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

lovely Evelyn, who asked of life the one thing 
it denied her. 

Under the oaks of Westover this beauty found 
a grave in which to rest forever. Darkened by 
time and roughened by storms, a massive stone 
slab is placed over the spot where, " in the sleep 
of deep peace," reposes the fairest flower of old 
Virginia, whose life has never been reproduced 
in all the time that has passed since the thir- 
teenth day of November, in 1737. The lengthy 
inscription upon her heavy tomb is guarded 
jealously by mosses and lichens which screen as 
best they can the piteous words from idle gaze. 
This tiny bit of God's earth, sacred to the mem- 
ory of one of His most beautiful human crea- 
tions, is thickly carpeted with the periwinkle vine 
evergreen through dreary winter months in re- 
membrance of her who sleeps beneath, and bright 
with smiling blue blossoms with the first bird 
song of early spring. 

The days that Mistress Evelyn knew belonged 
to that unique and beautiful era when high-heeled 
dames coquetted with gold laced cavaliers; to 
that delightful and remarkable period which pro- 
duced minds and masters, belles and beauties in 
whom vanity was blended with bravery with such 
wonderful results that the American people are 

69 



EVELYN BYRD 



what they are to-day. Hers was a time of filial 
obedience, which made it an age of tyranny and 
selfish parents. More than all, it was a day of 
pretty love stories, sometimes of pathetic disap- 
pointments and broken hearts, yet never has 
there been such a picturesque age, never will 
there be again such famous belles, and never will 
life be so unique and well worth living as when 
Evelyn Byrd was the toast of two worlds. 



MARTHA DANDRIDGE 

MRS. GEORGE WASHINGTON 




£) T the family homestead 
m old New Kent 
County, that portion of 
Virginia which has 
changed but little dur- 
ing the two centuries 
that have come be- 
^ tween, was born one 
May day, in 1732, a little girl whose name is so 
closely associated with the history of America 
that it is known to every school child. This little 
girl was Martha Dandridge, who came of the 
purest Southern aristocracy, and though her life 
shone principally in the light of her superb hus- 
band, there was in it, nevertheless, enough of 
romance and interest to gain for itself alone a 
responsive place. 

Born in the country, with only such schooling 
as could be gleaned from indifferent governesses, 
Martha Dandridge first tasted gay life at Wil- 
liamsburg, the little Capital of the Colonies, 
where, by her gracious manner and innate cheer- 

64 




THE DOLL TRUNK OF MARTHA DANURIDGE WASHINOTON 
Now in the Possession of Mrs. P. J. Kernodle, Richmond, Virginia 



MARTHA DANDRIDGE 



fulness, she soon won first place. And here it 
was that she seems to have met Daniel Parke 
Custis, whom she afterwards married. The 
flavor of romance Avas brought into this court- 
ship by the opposition of young Custis' father, 
who was eager for his son to contract a more 
ambitious alliance with his cousin, Evelyn Byrd, 
the beauty as well as greatest heiress of the 
Colony. After stormy scenes and stubborn re- 
fusals to give his sanction to the match, the 
doughty colonel was finally persuaded to hear 
some of the virtues and attractions of the j^oung 
lady of his son's choice and, the story goes, was 
so pleased with the sincere praise of her that 
came to him from all sides, that he finally 
yielded, even going so far as to put his consent 
in written words: " I give my free consent to the 
union of my son, Daniel, with Miss Martha 
Dandridge." 

And so, at the age of seventeen, Mistress 
Martha, the Williamsburg belle, became Mrs. 
Daniel Parke Custis, and went with her husband 
to his plantation, the White House, in New Kent 
County, Virginia, which is pointed out to tourists 
to-day from the windows of an antiquated train 
that crawls lazily through this historic bit of 
country. In the first order sent to his London 

5 65 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

agent after his marriage, Daniel Custis wrote: 
" I desire a handsome watch for my wife, a pat- 
tern like the one you bought for Mrs. Burwell, 
with her name around the dial. There are just 
twelve letters in her name, ^Iartha Custis, 
a letter for each hour marked on the dial plate." 
This watch of history still exists to show with 
what faithfulness the order was executed. It 
has an open face, the gold back being enhanced 
with a circle of gold-set white enamel which ex- 
tends over the front edges. The enamel of the 
dial is cracked and broken, but above most of 
the numerals, beginning with the first, is a letter 
of the name, Martha Custis. 

Two children came of this union, and the 
young wife knew a great happiness. Her dream, 
however, was broken by the sad death of her 
husband, in 1757, and though he left her an 
ample fortune and an untiring interest in their 
little boy and girl, for a few years life seemed 
very incomplete for her. But for a meeting, the 
outcome of the merest accident, Martha Custis 
might have passed out of the world without leav- 
ing the tiniest shadow. With the curious way in 
which Fate so often manipulates things, how- 
ever, her life was otherwise ordained. 

One day, in the year 1758, a young officer fresh 

66 



MARTHA DANDRIDGE 



from his first military triumphs crossed the 
Pamunkey River, landing upon the plantation 
of his friend, Mr. Chamberlayne. Though he 
had no intention of being delayed, this British 
soldier was at length persuaded to dine with Mr. 
Chamberlayne, the latter promising to reward 
him by presenting him to the most charming 
widow in the Colonies, who was also well en- 
dowed with worldly goods. And thus, George 
Washington met the Widow Custis. The at- 
traction was mutual ; the hours the two spent to- 
gether passed all too swiftly; the days apart 
seemed never ending, and after a brief courtship, 
these two persons, the center of the social his- 
tory of America, plighted their troth. One of 
the few letters preserved of their most interest- 
ing correspondence was written when Wash- 
ington was in camp near Fort Cumberland, and 
we must admit that it sounds a bit stiff and 
stilted, even if between the lines sincerity rings 
true. " We have begun our march for the Ohio," 
it runs. " A Courier is starting for Williams- 
burg, and I embrace the opportunity to send a 
few words to one whose life is now inseparable 
from mine. Since that happy hour when we 
made our pledges to each other, my thoughts 
have been continually going to you as to another 

67 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

Self. That an All-powerful Providence may 
keep us both in safety is the prayer of your ever 
faithful & 

"Ever affectionate Friend, 

"G. Washington/' 
" 20th of July. 

" Mrs. Martha Custis." 

The exact date of the marriage is not known, 
but it is usually placed January 6th, 1759. Mr. 
Lossing informs us that for the wedding, " The 
bridegroom was clothed in a suit of blue cloth, 
the coat lined with red silk and ornamented with 
silver trimmings. His waistcoat was of white 
satin, embroidered; his shoe and knee buckles 
were gold ; his hair was powdered, and by his side 
hung a straight dress sword. The bride was at- 
tired in a white satin quilted j^etticoat, and a 
heavy corded white silk overskirt; high-heeled 
shoes of white satin, with diamond buckles; rich 
point lace ruffles; pearl necklace, ear-rings, and 
bracelet; and pearl ornaments in her hair. She 
was attended by three bridesmaids." 

The sentiment that generally prevailed in re- 
gard to this union cannot be better illustrated 
than by the following anecdotes: 

When the Federal Government was trying to 



MARTHA DANDRIDGE 



secure the land upon which Washington now 
stands, it was necessary to get control of a farm 
owned by a doughty Scotchman by the name of 
David Burns who proved very difficult. Upon 
one occasion, when President Washington was 
trying to induce him to sell, pointing out the 
great advantages he would derive from it, the 
peppery Davy, worn to exasperation, exclaimed, 
we hope without thinking: " I suppose you think 
people here are going to take every grist that 
comes from you as pure grain, hut what would 
you have been if you hadn't married the Widow 
Custis! " 

Shortly after their marriage, the Washing- 
tons took up their residence at Mount Vernon, 
and it is as the gracious chatelaine of that beau- 
tiful estate that Martha Washington shines su- 
l^reme. Under her guidance the household 
never wanted for efficient domestics, and though 
the discipline she maintained was strict, her hu- 
manity towards her servants, her interest in them, 
gained for her their most loyal aifection. Even 
after General Washington became President, 
she was in every way an accomplished housewife 
of the old school, giving her close attention to all 
domestic matters. And it was her untiring zeal 
in this respect that contributed so largely to the 

fi9 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

comfort and enjoyment of the numerous guests 
that were entertained at Mount Vernon and the 
White House. 

During the cloudy days prior to the Revolu- 
tion, JNIrs. Washington was her husband's great- 
est comfort; in camp, where she always followed 
the general, whether in ease at New York or 
Morristown, or suffering at Valley Forge, 
Martha Dandridge was the spirit of encourage- 
ment and cheerfulness to the disheartened sol- 
diers, by whom she was always called " Lady 
Washington." American friends of Great 
Britain had scattered broadcast the report that 
Mrs. Washington had separated from the gen- 
eral owing to her loyalty and his treason, where- 
upon, as soon as the story reached her ears, she 
set out for Philadelphia en route for camp at 
Cambridge, and at the Schuylkill Ferry was met 
by a troop of Light Horse and the officers of 
many companies, who escorted her into the city; 
from that moment she was the inspiration of the 
Continental forces. 

" Few females have figured in the drama of 
life amid scenes so varied & Imposing with so 
few faults and so many virtues. 

" Identified with the Father of his Country, 
in the great events which led to the establish- 

70 



MARTHA DANDRIDGE 



ment of a nation's independence, Mrs. Wash- 
ington necessarily partook much of his thoughts, 
his councils and his views. Often at his side, in 
that awful period that ' tried men's souls,' her 
cheerfulness soothed his anxieties, her firmness 
inspired confidence, while her devotional piety 
towards the Supreme Being enabled her to dis- 
cern the beautiful form of hope, amid the dark- 
ness occasioned by the greatest earthly grief." 
So one biographer writes of this splendid woman. 

After the fury of the Revolutionary storm had 
spent itself and the sun of American indepen- 
dence rose so brilliantly, it was the Washingtons 
towards whom the eyes of the young Republic 
looked, and here again, Mrs. Washington shone 
pre-eminent. As the Lady Presidentess, she 
was the same gentle, dignified hostess as she had 
been in New Kent County and at Mount Ver- 
non ; the honors which came with her exalted po- 
sition she wore well, always appreciating but 
never over-rating their value, and in describing 
one of her levees, an English traveller in this 
country, in 1790, writes: 

" At the drawing-room, Mrs. Washington re- 
ceived the ladies, who courtesied, and passed 
aside without exchanging a word. Tea and 
coffee, with refreshments of all kinds, were laid 

71 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

in one part of the rooms, and before the individ- 
uals of the company retired, each lady was a 
second time led up to the lady-president, made 
her second silent obeisance, and departed. Noth- 
ing could be more simple, yet it was enough." 

While in the White House, it was the custom 
of JNIrs. Washington to return the visits of those 
privileged to call upon her, the third day, and 
one of these calls is thus described by a fortunate 
recipient: " She would send a footman over, who 
would knock loudly and announce Mrs. Wash- 
ington, who would then come over with Mr. Lear. 
Her manners were very easy, pleasant and un- 
ceremonious, with the characteristics of other 
Virginia ladies." 

The life of Martha Washington was one of 
blended joys and sorrows. Though she and 
Washington were not blessed with children, they 
had the care and pleasure of her Custis grand- 
children, who so well rewarded their untiring af- 
fection. A promising early life drifted into one 
of caiv.. and troubles which must all have been 
forgotten and dispelled in the brilliant last years 
that were granted her. 

Of the many portraits of Martha Washington, 
the best liked are those of Wollaston and Gil- 
bert Stuart. The former, painted in 1757, shows 

72 




MARTHA DANDRIDGE 
MRS. GEORGE WASHINGTON 

From the Portrait by Wollaston 



MARTHA DANDRIDGE 



her as Mrs. Custis. It is a three-quarter figure, 
girhsh looking and full of life; the face is more 
noble than beautiful, the form rounded, and 
though Martha Dandridge was below the aver- 
age in height, from Wollaston's likeness one 
would fancy her to have been tall. 

The best among her portraits by Stuart is that 
done when she was advancing in years. In this, 
known as the Athenaeum portrait, she appears 
as a winsome old lady, content to be an old lady, 
whose motherly face is outlined by a frilled mob 
cap and who wears a simple fichu at the neck. 

Most old time belles won their fame by their 
beauty; Martha Dandridge won hers by her 
splendid mind and character, and though physi- 
cal loveliness must ever be one of the greatest 
feminine attractions, it must be admitted that the 
qualities which adorned the wife of our first 
President will live in the memory long after the 
greatest beauty has faded. 

On the twenty-second day of May, in 1802, 
seventy years after she had come into life and 
three weary years after the death of her adored 
husband, Martha Washington breathed her last, 
and the entire country mourned her loss sincerely 
when the Portfolio of June 5th, the same year, 
announced : 

73 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

"Died at Mount Vernon, on Saturday even- 
ing, the 22nd of May, 1802, INIrs. Martha Wash- 
ington, widow of the late illustrious General 
George Washington. To those amiable and 
Christian virtues which adorn a female character, 
she added dignity of manners, superiority of un- 
derstanding, a mind intelligent and elevated. 
The silence of our respectful grief is our best 
eulogy." 



BRIAN FAIRFAX 



EIGHTH LORD FAIRFAX 




N a bleak, cold day in De- 
cember, 1781, that mem- 
orable year which mark- 
ed the triumph of 
America's Revolution, a 
well-mounted horseman 
rode rapidly some sev- 
enty-five miles to deliver 
a letter sealed heavily with black wax into which 
had sunk the impress of an historic coat of arms. 
This adventurous rider came from a rude lit- 
tle dwelling perched upon a slope of Virginia's 
Blue Ridge Mountains, and the missive he so 
carefully bore acquainted in the following 
briefly formal words the prospective heir with 
old Lord Fairfax's death: 



" To Brian Fairfax', Esq., Towlston. 

" His Lordship died December the 7th. 
Messrs. Jones and Peter Hog are daily expected 
here, who, in conjunction with me, his Lord- 



75 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

ship has appointed his Executors. I shall send 
a messenger on purpose to acquaint you with 
their sentiments. 

" I am, Dear Sir, your afFecte. Humble Servt., 

"B. Martin.^^ 

To understand the whole story, one must go 
back to the year 1688, when King James II of 
England granted to Thomas, Lord Culpepper, 
a previous Governor of Virginia (a very unpopu- 
lar one, too), that splendid and extensive domain 
known to historians and geographers as the 
Northern Neck of Virginia. Catharine, the 
daughter of this Lord Culpepper, married a 
Fairfax, and to their son, Thomas, Sixth Lord 
Fairfax, fell the veritable principality. Thus 
it was that this aristocratic family became the 
proprietors of a wilderness empire, according to 
the grant " together with all its forests, mines, 
minerals, huntings, fishings, and fowlings, with 
authority to divide, sell, grant or lease and oc- 
cupy at will, any or every portion thereof, al- 
ways however to be and remain under allegiance 
to the royal prerogative." 

But Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax, did not 
seem to appreciate this regal inheritance, and 
being loath to leave the gay Court life he so well 

76 




BRIAN, LORD FAIRFAX 




Fiiirfiix Am 



BRIAN FAIRFAX 



adorned, entrusted to his cousin, William Fair- 
fax, the management of the vast estate. Nor 
was it until many years afterwards that he even 
visited America, and then it was to take refuge 
here and become, as the outcome of an unfortu- 
nate love affair, a taciturn recluse for the re- 
mainder of his life. Belvoir, his twenty-five 
hundred acre plantation which adjoined Mount 
Vernon, did not appeal to this young man, a 
macaroni in his day, and, curiously enough, 
though he came fresh from the most brilliant 
drawing-rooms of London, he longed for the 
Colonial wilds in which to hide himself and muse 
over or forget his sorrow. Choosing a wooded 
slope not far from the present town of Winches- 
ter, he built the low-browed mountain cottage 
which from then on was his home, and it was 
from the little dwelling at Greenway Court that 
the old letter to his cousin came. 

Though Robert, the brother of Lord Thomas 
Fairfax, inherited the title, it was his American 
cousin Brian whom Benjamin Martin, the old 
lord's nephew and companion, first notified. 
Robert lived just ten years after this, and upon 
his' death it was to Brian Fairfax as the next of 
kin that the title fell. 

The Eighth Lord Fairfax, who has been de- 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 



scribed as " A minister of God, as pure as he 
was conscientious," was the enviable possessor 
of two handsome country seats; one known as 
Towlston was situated but a few miles from 
Alexandria, while the other. Mount Eagle, 
looked over Hunting Creek, an historic bit of 
water which flows through Fairfax County, Vir- 
ginia. Besides being so well endowed in worldly 
ways, he claimed the distinction of being cousin, 
neighbor and friend of George Washington, and 
yet a Tory baron. It was Anne Fairfax, his 
half-sister, who, by marrying Lawrence Wash- 
ington, became the first mistress of beautiful 
Mount Vernon, while his winsome daughter, fair 
little Sally Fairfax, whose happy life was cut so 
pitifully short, left in her childish daily journal 
some quaint word pictures of the times in which 
she lived. 

As this little maid of olden days was so much 
a part of her father's early life, it may be in- 
teresting to steal a glance into her well-thumbed 
and laboriously written diary, dated the year that 
she had counted ten. How quaintly she antici- 
pates a Christmas party at old Belvoir, where 
she was born: "On thursday the 26 of decem 
INIama made 6 mince pyes and 7 custards 12 tarts 
1 chicking pye and 4 pudings for the ball." 



78 



BRIAN FAIRFAX 



Sally's love of detail is soon impressed upon her 
reader, who is a bit shocked to find entered upon 
another day: " on Satterday the 28th of decem- 
ber I won 10 shillings of Mr. William payn at 
chex." This last entry is not easily reconciled 
with the daughter of an eighteenth century par- 
son, though it must be admitted that he has been 
called a lover of good sport himself. But the 




The Tailpiece of Little Sally Fairfax's Journal 



most original and amusing bit of the journal is 
the last leaf, the finis, as it were, for here the 
child, evidently in great glee over having put 
back of her an uncongenial task, has drawn an 
impertinent jackdaw perched upon a tree no 
larger than himself and jeering to the world at 
large: "Ha! Ha! Ha!" 

The father of Brian was Colonel William 
Fairfax, the sixth lord's agent, and the epitaph 

79 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

upon the tomb of his mother, Deborah Gedney, 
gives a brief history of her life, proving both 
parents to have been persons of no small conse- 
quence in the Colonies: 

" Here Rest the Remains of Deborah Clarke Fairfax 
who Departed this Troublesome Life on the Fourteenth 
Day of 1747 in the Sixty-Seventh Year of Her Age. 

She was the Widow of Francis Clarke of New 
Salem, Massachusetts Colony, and Late Wife of 
William Fairfax, Esq., Collector of His Majesty's 
Customs on the South Potomac, and one of the King's 
Honorable Council of Virginia. In every station of 
Life She was worthy of Imitation. A Faithful and 
Loving Wife. The best of Mothers. 

A Sincere and Aimiable Friend. In all Religious 
Duties well instructed and Observ^ant, and has gone 
where only such virtues can be Rewarded." 

Brian Fairfax, the best known of a family of 
seven children, was born in 1737 and, according 
to old chroniclers, showed at an early age his call- 
ing to the ministry, which he entered shortly af- 
ter he became of age. But this noble Virginia 
gentleman was no ordinary parson, for no man 
better loved to ride with the hounds, no sports- 
man could boast of a truer shot and few authors 
could write more pertinent or caustic para- 
graphs. Note, for instance, his conception of one 
passage in the Bible: " David tells us, ' Men of 

80 



BRIAN FAIRFAX 



high degree are a lie (they promise and never 
perform), and meii of low degree are vanity' 
(that is, have nothing to give) ." Bishop Meade 
wrote that the Reverend Mr. Fairfax was a man 
of sterling character, well fitted in every way 
to speak the word of God, but the word pictures 
painted of him by his contemporaries and inti- 
mates leave upon us more the impression of a 
typical southern planter than of a pious minis- 
ter. Through his marriage to Elizabeth Gary he 
strengthened his position of prominence, for the 
Carys of Virginia were counted among the high- 
est born and most beautiful women of the Colony. 
When American liberty became the greatest 
problem ever laid before the Colonists, Brian 
Fairfax, then Rector of old Christ Church, Alex- 
andria, and George Washington's minister as 
well as trusted friend, brought every power of 
eloquence at his command to persuade the lat- 
ter from opposing England. Happening to be 
at Mount Vernon when news of the battle of 
Lexington was brought, his attitude upon re- 
ceiving the grave announcement was thus de- 
scribed by Washington Irving: " The worthy 
and gentle spirited Fairfax deplored it deeply. 
He foresaw that it must break up all his pleas- 
ant relations in life; arraying his dearest friends 

6 81 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

against the Government to which, notwithstand- 
ing the errors of its policy, he was loyally at- 
tached and resolved to adhere." Though their 
difference of opinion always rose as a barrier 
between these two splendid men, their friend- 
ship was always sincere, and when Washington 
died, he left a paragraph in his will which read: 
" To the Reverend, Now Bryan, Lord Fairfax, 
I give a Bible in three large folio volumes with 
notes, presented to me by the Right Reverend 
Thomas Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man." 

In the old garden at Belvoir house, where 
Brian Fairfax Spaced to and fro conning in- 
tently the deep pages of theology, and where a 
generation later he forgot his priestly dignity 
to romp with his wee daughter Sally, there were 
" box bordered beds of lady-slippers, sweet- 
williams, marigolds, lilacs, and the like." In the 
arbors of this fragrant garden, George Washing- 
ton often sat to converse upon the crops with his 
farmer friend or ask spiritual comfort from his 
minister, as the case might have been, and here 
Lady Fairfax was at her best as she showed to 
admiring friends and neighbors the beautiful and 
numerous blossoms which came into life as com- 
pensation for her toil. 

When news reached the American heir to the 

82 



BRIAN FAIRFAX 



Fairfax title that his cousin had died, in 1793, 
he at once repaired to London to lay before the 
House of Lords his claim. In anticipation of 
this trip abroad, Washington, for whom he was 
the bearer of some letters, wrote him : 

" Mount Vernon, 18th May, 1798. 
" De^\r Sir, 

" Having occasion to write another letter to 
Sir John Sinclair, I take the liberty of giving 
you the trouble of it, and Mrs. Washington begs 
the favour of you to put her letter to her old 
neighbour and friend, Mrs. Fairfax, into a chan- 
nel for safe delivery if you should not see her 
yourself. 

" Knowing from experience that Masters of 
Vessels never sail at the time they first appoint, 
Mrs. Washington and I propose to call upon 
you on our return from the cit}^ in full confi- 
dence of seeing you then. If, however, contrary 
to expectation, the Captain of the vessel you 
embark on should be more punctual than usual, 
and we should be disappointed in this, we beg 
you to receive our ardent wishes for a safe and 
pleasant passage to England — the perfect res- 
toration of your health and happy meeting with 
your friends when you return. To these wishes 

83 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

let me add assurances of the affectionate regard 
of 

"Dear Sir, 

" Your Obed't Servant, 

" G. Washington/'' 
" Our compliments to Mrs. Fairfax and the 
family. 

" The Revd. Mr. Fairfax." 

During his long sojourn in Great Britain, 
pending the investigation of his claim to the 
title, Mr. Fairfax resided at Leeds Castle, seat 
of his Fairfax kindred, and in his " History of 
Leeds Castle," C. Wykeham Martin refers to 
him: " He was an Episcopalian clergyman, and, 
unlike the clergy of England, his dress was a 
complete suit of purple, in accordance with the 
customs of Virginia." 

It was not until 1800 that his title was con- 
firmed, and his sister Hannah, wife of Warner 
Washington, stood, evidently, somewhat in awe 
of her brother's new dignity when she wrote of 
it to her son from Mount Eagle upon her first 
visit there after Lord Fairfax's return. " I have 
the pleasure of informing my dear Son that I 
found his Lordship greatly mended though still 
weak. He had paid some morning visits to 

84 



BRIAN FAIRFAX 



Alexandria the day we got down. He has no 
legs left now, and indeed his whole body is 
greatly emaciated. . . . His Lordship has 
invited sixteen gents here to-day, so we are to 
have a feast, — all those who have paid visits 
here since his arrival and during his illness. It 
is so long since I have conversed with Noblemen 
that it was very awkward the first day to address 
either my Brother or Sister by their titles — in- 
deed I have only got over the difficulty to-day." 
But the worldly glory came to the old planter- 
parson almost too late, for he lived but three 
years to enjoy it, and, in 1802, the bell of old 
Christ Church mournfully announced to the 
clergy of Virginia that one of the kindest, purest 
and best of their number had been called to his 
eternal recompense. In Ivy Hill Cemetery, near 
Alexandria, and not far from the plantation he 
had called home, there is a tablet erected by his 
granddaughter, who had carved into the stone 
the words: 

" In Memoriam. 

" Right Hon. Rev. Bryan, Lord Fairfax, Baron of 
Cameron and Rector of Christ Church, Fairfax Parish. 

Died at Mount Eagle, Aug. 7, 1802, aged 78. 
" The Lord Forsaketh not the Saints. They are pre- 
served forever." 



fi' 



LAMBERT CADWALADER 




P MONG the numerous 
portraits that came 
from the brush of 
Charles Wilson Peale 
there is one which ex- 
cites sincere admiration 
in artist and layman 
through its expression 
of dignity and repose. The subject of this por- 
trait, which was made in the year 1770, was 
Lambert Cadwalader, a distinguished Colonial 
gentleman and Revolutionary soldier. Dressed, 
apparently, in the quiet garb of the Society of 
Friends, Colonel Cadwalader is pictured leaning 
easily against a table or chair, and back of him, 
through an open window, a glimpse of the blue 
skies and green trees of the country is given. 
His powdered wig is rolled high from the ears 
and is caught back tightly into a queue, the 
severity of its outline accentuating the high-bred 
face and intelligent forehead. Dark and heavy 
eyebrows, keen eyes, a nose almost feminine in 
its beauty, a well cleft upper lip and splendid 

86 



LAMBERT CADWALADER 

mouth, gave to this eighteenth century gentle- 
man every right to be called handsome. 

But if Lambert Cadwalader was a handsome 
man, he was no less brave, and we find his name 
boldly written in the most stirring chapter of 
the country's history; for he was born in 1742, 
and had reached manhood's prime when 
America's Declaration of Independence startled 
the old world. Though Trenton, New Jersey, 
was his birth place, and he later represented his 
native State in the first Congress, Lambert Cad- 
walader received his education in Philadelphia, 
as his father, Dr. Thomas Cadwalader, and his 
mother, who was Hannah Lambert, called that 
city home. 

The early years of Colonel Cadwalader's life 
were spent much as were those of other well-to-do 
young Americans of the pre-Revolutionary pe- 
riod, and but for the grave war in which he so 
conspicuously figured, it is somewhat doubtful 
if Lambert Cadwalader would ever have been 
known beyond aristocratic clubs and gilded ball- 
rooms. As it was ordained, however, the young- 
New Jersian was meant for larger things, and 
when John Cadwalader organized his Philadel- 
phia troop, his young kinsman was one of the 
first to volunteer. Even before the boom of the 

87 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

— ■ 

great gun in Lexington, these Pennsylvania sol- 
diers were drilling daily, and though the 
" Greens," as they were known, were sneeringly 
dubbed " the Silk Stocking Company," the splen- 
did work they did in actual warfare lifts from 
them for all time this gibe of 1776. 

Morning and afternoon, day after day, young 
Lambert Cadwalader presented himself at John 
Cadwalader's yard, where his friends to the num- 
ber of seventy prepared themselves for battle. 
At first, it may have been for him something 
of a lark, for Colonel Cadwalader's cellar 
boasted excellent Madeira, and after the ardu- 
ous task of drilling, the would-be soldiers were 
amply refreshed by draughts of the exhilarating 
wine. Of these j^oung men who represented the 
flower of Philadelphia, Graydon says: " Their 
fathers were so fine that Mifflin called them 
Aristocrats," yet we find a Mifflin named among 
the company, other members of Lambert Cad- 
walader's battalion being John Nixon, Samuel 
Meredith, Peter Markoe, James Biddle, Ben- 
jamin Loxley, Thomas Proctor, Joseph Moulder, 
Richard Peters, Tench Francis, William Brad- 
ford, Joseph Cowperthwaite, John Shee, John 
Wilcocks and Francis Gurne3^ 

These embryo soldiers must have presented 

88 



LAMBERT CADWALADER 

splendid figures in their green-faced coats, which 
were " short, falhng but little below the waist 
band of the breeches which shows the size of a 
man to great advantage." White stockings and 
black knee-garters, half-boots and small hats 
ornamented with tufts of deer fur made to re- 
semble as closely as possible the tail of a buck, 
completed their Revolutionary costumes, which, 
no doubt, suffered a sad deterioration during 
the years of actual warfare. 

In January, 1776, when excitement in 
America was at its hottest, the name of Lambert 
Cadwalader, of the Philadelphia Greens, headed 
the list of those sent in for lieutenant-colonel- 
cies, January 3rd, at which time he became an 
officer in Shee's battalion. Scarce nine months 
later, in the following October, he was promoted 
to the rank of colonel, which title he bore with 
dignity the remainder of his days. From the 
date of this promotion, the young colonel of 
the Fourth Regiment of Foot, United States 
Armj^ until the war was over, saw service as 
dangerous as it was active, and no oflficer was 
more rigid in military discipline, no courier more 
swift and no soldier more daring than this gilded 
youth whose previous life had been one of aris- 
tocratic leisure. 

89 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

On the sixteenth day of November, 1776, Col- 
onel Cadwalader took a gallant part in the de- 
fence of Fort Washington, which resulted in his 
capture by the British. Fortunately for him, 
his imprisonment was of very short duration, 
for his father had shown many kindnesses to 
General Prescott when the latter was held in 
Philadelphia; and when Sir William Howe 
learned of Colonel Cadwalader's detention, 
he proved his appreciation of favors shown 
his general by releasing the American 
officer without parole and sending him back 
home. 

Though his first capture ended so well for him, 
the young colonel later spent some long and 
bitter hours in prison, but when peace was de- 
clared, found himself compensated for his suf- 
ferings by the distinction accorded him owing 
to the patriotic service he had so freely given to 
his country. In sincere gratitude for what he 
had done in America's time of need, Colonel Cad- 
walader was elected to Congress, in 1789, by the 
people of his birth State. But this patriot born 
seems to have been a better soldier than states- 
man, for, although he represented his constitu- 
ents as well as the majority of Congressmen, he 
never rose to the heights he had attained in the 

90 




LAMBERT CADWALADER 
From the Portrait by Charles Wilson Peaie 



LAMBERT CADWALADER 

military. The field of battle, the dangers of 
camp life must have appealed more strongly to 
him than the ease of the House of Representa- 
tives with its political tread-mill. In Peale's 
portrait he appears much more the dignified 
statesman than dashing soldier, though the 
likeness was made before he was either, he 
at that time being just a young gentleman of 
fashion. 

After the war he was fortunate enough to se- 
cure a part of his father's estate, Greenwood, 
near Trenton, which place from then on he made 
his home. As host of this ancestral mansion. 
Colonel Cadwalader became famous for his hos- 
pitality, " a virtue which he both inherited and 
transmitted." 

When the Revolution was twelve years in 
the past, when he was a bachelor of fifty-one, 
Lambert Cadwalader was married to Miss 
Mary McCall, daughter of Archibald McCall, 
of Philadelphia. 

His domestic life seems to have been lost in 
the glory of his public valor, though it would un- 
doubtedly prove very interesting to know just 
what the war-time hero was like in the intimacy 
of his own home. Of his wife, we also know but 
little, and perhaps it is just as well for the kindly 

91 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

veil of obscurity to fall over the private life of a 
public citizen, else he might be denied the joys 
of having anything all his own. 

A contemporary and great admirer of this son 
of the Revolution wrote: "To the good breed- 
ing, courtesy and elegance of the gentleman, he 
united the advantages of early education and the 
acquisition of an enlarged and cultivated under- 
standing, regulated by classical taste and im- 
proved by habits of general reading. Few were 
so happily gifted with the power of pleasing 
and the disposition to be pleased; few have en- 
joyed in an equal share the friendship, respect 
and affection of all around them." 

Eighty-one years is a lengthy span to be al- 
lotted to one man, yet Lambert Cadwalader used 
his to the advantage of his country, and when 
death claimed him in 1823, those who knew him 
mourned a sincere friend, while the nation he 
had helped to create gave him a place in her 
bravest history. 

It was at beautiful Greenwood that life ceased 
for him, on September 23, 182i3, and it is in the 
Old Friends' Burial Ground, in Trenton, that 
he sleeps serenely through the restless age that 
he never knew. 

Closing the chapter of his life, this later gen- 

92 



LAMBERT CADWALADER 

eration is apt to think of and appreciate the let- 
ter he wrote his good friend, Colonel George 
Morgan, of Pittsburgh, not very long after the 
Stamp Act was repealed; the letter in which oc- 
cur the strangely prophetic words : 

"America is again free! God bless her; long 
may she remain so. As to the Act asserting the 
right of Parliament to tax the Colonies, we shall 
regard it as waste paper. Let us only enjoy 
liberty but half a century longer, and we will 
defy the power of England to enslave us." 



FRANCES DEERING 
WENTWORTH 

LADY WENTWORTH 




3 N the White Mountain 
section of New Hamp- 
shire, justly called the 
Switzerland of Amer- 
ica, are three pictu- 
resque towns which 
owe their names to a 
famous Colonial belle. 
Wentworth, the most important of these little 
cities, is situated among the foot-hills of Grafton 
County, while Deering and Francestown both 
nestle in the smiling valleys of County Hillsboro 
with its lofty mountain background. 

The lovely sponsor for these New England 
villages, rich in their wealth of Colonial lore and 
legend, was Frances Deering Wentworth, the 
daughter of Samuel Wentworth, of Boston, who 
found, when she came into life, an enviable 
position owing to the prominence of her parents. 
It was the good fortune of the little maid to be 
born in 1746, so she lived the true Colonial life 

94 



FRANCES DEERING WENT WORTH 

upon which she often looked back with a wistful 
pang from the glare and glitter of the princely 
courts at which her lines were cast after 1776. 
When the beautiful Frances was just nine- 
teen, John Singleton Copley, who had admired 
her greatly since her childhood, was permitted 
to paint her portrait, and a visit to the public 
library in New York, where this much-vaunted 
painting now hangs, shows clearly that the in- 
spiration of the subject won from the artist his 
best efforts towards her reproduction. This por- 
trait of three-quarter length represents the 
beauty in a gown of shimmering satin relieved 
by priceless ivory lace in the low corsage and 
elbow sleeves; across the right shoulder a scarf 
falls gracefully, while in her left hand is held 
a slender chain to which is attached a flying 
squirrel playing merrily upon the table at which 
she haughtily sits. Her dark hair is taken back 
so severely from the forehead that had Miss 
Wentworth been aught but a perfect beauty the 
effect would have been almost ludicrous; as it 
is, the hard outline is relieved by the rope of 
pearls which hang near the brow and match so 
perfectly the necklace of the same precious 
jewels about her throat. Oddly enough, the ear- 
rings she wears make her appear almost modern. 

95 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

Back of the figure hangs the velvet drapery of 
a curtain in which Copley is as well recognized 
as in the flying squirrel. The portrait is surely 
very beautiful, and the original with her heavy 
dark hair and glorious almond eyes, full of prom- 
ises and denials; her brilliant coloring and well- 
curved lips; her haughty bearing and queenly 
poise, must have admitted few, if any rivals, in all 
New England. 

But the fair Frances was both fickle and ca- 
pricious; of beaux she had a-plenty, but when 
she was very young, she fell deeply in love with 
her cousin, John Wentworth, of New Hamp- 
shire, whose future seemed as promising as the 
lad was good to look at. But the little God of 
Love frowned more than once upon these two 
interesting young people for whom life should 
have been so smooth and rosy. Frances Went- 
worth, as are all great beauties, was both wilful 
and high tempered ; her cousin was no less head- 
strong, and when it came to the winning of a 
lover's quarrel, neither would admit defeat, so 
the engagement snapped rudely, and young 
Wentworth sought forgetfulness in some years 
of travel. It is said that Mistress Frances at 
first refused to believe the affair at an end, but 
as time rolled by and her irate fiance came neither 

96 




FRANCES DEERING WENTWORTH 

LADY WENTWORTH 

From the p^ngraving by H. W. Smith after Copley's Portrait 



FRANCES DEERING WENTWORTH 

repentant nor at all, she grew impatient, and 
tired of waiting, resolved to banish him from her 
thoughts. Acting upon the impulse, she be- 
stowed her hand if not her heart upon another 
cousin, Theodore Atkinson, kinsman also of 
John Wentworth. When the latter returned and 
found Frances married, he accepted the change 
as a matter of course, and though he did not ap- 
pear to be envious of his rival's good fortune, 
his eyes and thoughts seem to have been con- 
stantly upon the pair. 

The married life of Mrs. Theodore Atkinson 
must have held but little of interest, for we do 
not hear of the lady again until the death of her 
husband, when she once more becomes identified 
with the social history of New Hampshire and 
Massachusetts. It was in a rudely shocking 
manner that she returned to the stage of the gay 
world. Theodore Atkinson, whether happy or 
otherwise, did not live long to enjoy his brilliant 
wife, and no sooner had he been laid to rest than 
the thoughts of his beautiful widow turned to 
her girlhood lover. She seems to have been per- 
fectly frank in admitting no grief for her loss, 
and heartless as it would appear, after one short 
week of lightest mourning became the bride of 
her former fiance. The second wedding cere- 

7 97 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

mony took place for Frances Wentworth on the 
eleventh day of November, in 1769, and in this 
marriage she truly came into her own. In the 
romance connected with the whole affair which 
was known throughout New England, Norah 
Perry found the inspiration for her well-known 
poem. 

Frances Wentworth proved both wise and 
happy in her last matrimonial venture, for from 
then on she became conspicuous in official life. 
John Wentworth succeeded his father in the 
Governorship of New Hampshire, and as the 
first lady of the Granite State she won her ever- 
lasting fame. 

No New England man of his period advanced 
more rapidly in public preferment and political 
prominence than John Wentworth. From his 
father he inherited much beyond mere wealth, 
for the senior Wentworth was a King's Coun- 
cillor, Justice of Common Pleas and Lieutenant- 
Governor of the Colony. Though he drew no 
regular salary, the splendid money grants that 
came to him from the Crown, together with the 
lands he owned, insured for his son an ample 
income that extended beyond his life to that of 
his posterity. Born August 9, 1737, young 
Wentworth was sent from the hands of a tutor 

98 



FRANCES DEERING WENTWORTH 

to Harvard, where he became distinguished in 
more ways than one and made for himself friends 
who were close to him as long as he remained 
true to his own country. About the year 1765, 
when he was still a very young man, he was hon- 
ored by being sent to England as the agent of his 
province. The manner in which he conducted 
this embassy, the social success that was his 
abroad, and his personal charm are said to have 
been borrowed by Theodore Winthrop for the 
leading character in his " Edwin Prothertoft." 

Upon the outbreak of the Revolution, Gov- 
ernor Wentworth, ever loyal to the government 
which had shown such faith in him, went with his 
family at once to England, where he was created 
a baronet under the title Sir John Wentworth. 

Possessing such rare beauty, such a regal bear- 
ing, and such infinite tact, one is not surprised 
that Lady Wentworth became so great a favor- 
ite in the royal household that she became maid 
of honor to Queen Charlotte, while her person- 
ality, her powers of conversation, and innumer- 
able accomplishments, allied to her American 
birth, rendered her a conspicuous figure at more 
than one foreign court. 

The adulation they received abroad, coupled 
with the fact that their loyal allegiance had not 

99 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

served to make them over-popular in their own 
country, kept the Wentworths away from the 
United States the remainder of their lives. Sir 
John was made Governor of Nova Scotia, and 
it was there that he died in 1820, but it was in 
England that Lady Frances had bid the world 
good-by seven years before, in 1813. The 
lovely maid of Copley's portrait had developed 
into a matron of sixty-seven; the black hair had 
given way to silver ; the Cupid's bow mouth had 
become pinched and drawn; the velvet skin was 
marred with lines; but the almond eyes were just 
as bright and the famous wit almost as keen as 
when Mrs. Theodore Atkinson threw aside her 
widow's weeds to become the ever-resplendent 
Lady Frances Deering Wentworth. 



GEORGE DIGGES 




pROUND a massive 
glowing fireplace, in a 
Potomac River man- 
sion, that picturesque 
centre of the old time 
home, for many years 
there gathered the 
members of a splendid 
family whose American root, though firmly 
planted in Virginia, sent vigorous branches into 
her sister State of Maryland. Digges was the 
name of this illustrious family, Warburton their 
country seat, and in telling the story of one of its 
most distinguished members, perhaps it is best to 
know a bit of his ancestors. An excellent idea of 
the life of one of these gentlemen is gained in 
reading upon an ancient tomb the epitaph : 



" To the memory of Edward Digges, Esquire, 
Sonne of Sir Dudley Digges, of Chilham, in Kent, 
Knight and Baronett, Master of the Rolls m the reign 
of King Charles the 1st. He departed this life on 
the 15th of March, 1675, in the 55th year of his age, 
one of his Majesty's Councill for this his Colony of Va. 

101 



OLD TIINIE BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

A gentleman of most commendable parts and ingenuity, 
and the only introducer and promoter of the silk- 
manufacture in this Colonie, and in everything else a 
pattern worthy of all pious imitation. He had issue 
six sonnes and seven daughters by the body of Elizabeth 
his wife, who of her conjugal affection hath dedicated 
to him this memorial." 

Chilham Castle, in the English County of 
Kent, was built by old Sir Dudley when Charles 
the First was king, and over its entrance may 
still be read : " The Lord is my house of defense 
and my Castle, Dudley Digges — Mary Kempe." 

Upon anotlier family stone are graven these in- 
teresting words: 

" Digges, ever to extremes untaught to bend; 
Enjoying life, yet mindful of his end. 
In thee the world an happy meeting saw 
Of sprightly humour and religious awe. 
Cheerful, not wild; facetious, yet not mad; 
Though grave, not sour; though serious, never sad. 
Mirth came not, call'd to banish from within 
Intruding pangs of unrepented sin ; 
And thy religion was no studied art 
To varnish guilt, but purified the heart. 
What less than a felicity most rare 
Could spring from such a temper and such care.'* 
Now in the city, taking great delight 
To vote new laws, or old interpret right ; 

102 



GEORGE DIGGES 



Now crowds and business quitting, to receive 

The joys content in solitude can give. 

With equal praise thou shone among the great. 

And graced the humble pleasures of retreat; 

Display 'd thy dignity on every scene, 

And tempted or betray'd to nothing mean. 

Whate'er of mean beneath it lies, 

The rest unstain'd is claim'd by the skies." 

Colonel William Digges, the Maryland de- 
scendant of the original branch of the Virginia 
family, married Elizabeth Seawell, who was the 
step-daughter of Charles Calvert, third Lord 
Baltimore. Her mother was beautiful Jane 
Lowe, daughter of Sir Vincent Lowe and Anne 
Cavendish, the splendid stock of which is to-day 
represented upon the Eastern Shore of Mary- 
land. Thus it was that Jane Lowe, Lady Balti- 
more, came to be the great-grandmother of 
George Digges. 

As it is through portraits that one learns best 
to know the personal characteristics of those who 
have gone before, we must turn to the likeness 
of this eighteenth century gentleman who sat to 
Sir Joshua Reynolds. Exceedingly beautiful in 
point of art and physical expression, the portrait 
of young George Digges is well worth an hour's 
study. It has been said that the face strongly re- 
sembles that of the younger William Pitt. In 

103 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

any event, it is one superbly handsome. The 
powdered hair worn in the early Republican style, 
the strong, straight nose, the scornful, almost 
cruel mouth and broad, deep forehead, betray 
at first glance a person of high degree, while the 
eyes, deep set and dark beneath straight brows, 
fiery, searching in their expression, prove the sub- 
ject to have been more than a mere courtier, 
though the scarlet coat, gold buttoned waistcoat, 
and scrupulously tied stock, would lead one to 
believe him fitted for that and nothing more. It 
is the eyes that hold one longest in the portrait, 
and yet it is the eyes, between which lie two 
frowning lines, that send one to search for that 
which is gladly found. 

In some unaccountable manner George 
Digges has become confounded with his brother 
Thomas, conflicting stories being told of each, 
though in research as careful as can be made a 
century after the death of both, it appears to 
have been George and not Thomas, as is fre- 
quently stated, who represented America so 
brilliantl}^ at the Court of the English king. 
During his youth, which was mostly spent in 
London, he was known as " the handsome 
American " to which epithet his right is most as- 
suredly undisputed. A dandy in appearance, his 

104 



GEORGE DIGGES 



dress was always exquisitely neat and in the best 
extreme of fashion. When he walked abroad he 
wore black satin small clothes which met the 
long white silk stockings. His coat was of the 
finest broadcloth or silkiest velvet ; his white satin 
waistcoat richly embroidered, and his stock of 
immaculate white mull. But when his bachelor 
friends assembled in his apartments for a bowl 
of rack or a bit of gossip, he received them in a 
flowing gown of gorgeous damask, while in place 
of silver buckled shoes, his feet were encased in 
leather slippers matching or contrasting to the 
color of his robe. It must be admitted that the 
young American was somewhat of a macaroni, 
yet, when he returned to his own country and 
felt its need for a certain and rare type of man, 
he proved himself of resolute character and ar- 
dent patriotism. So sincere was he in the ser- 
vices he rendered, so successful was he in carry- 
ing out any matter of importance entrusted to 
him, that when the time came for the American 
Congress to send a confidential representative to 
the Court of St. James, George Washington 
threw all his great influence towards the youthful 
Marylander, who was granted the commission as 
hazardous as it was complimentary. 

High toned in morals, superior in ability,. 

105 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

amazingly handsome and debonair in appear- 
ance, George Digges was a man of many parts, 
and lived to the betterment of his country and 
of his friends. 

Warburton, lying as it did on the Potomac 
shore diagonally across from Mount Vernon, 
near the present site of Fort Washington, there 
was much intercourse between the families of the 
two estates, and Washington Irving describes 
some of the meetings upon the river highway as : 
" Water parties upon the Potomac in those days 
when Mr. Digges would receive his guests in a 
barge rowed by six negroes arrayed in a uniform 
whose distinguishing beauties were check shirts 
and black velvet caps." So it was in this manner 
that the handsome host of Warburton went to 
visit the Washingtons. It was at his beautiful 
home that Major L'Enfant was for some time a 
guest of honor, and there were but few eminent 
American men of the period who were not at 
some time entertained there. 

That all the patriotism of the Digges family 
was not confined to the men, can easily be be- 
lieved when one hears an anecdote related of one 
of the Mrs. Digges, who came of the Carrolls 
of Maryland. During the Revolution a number 
of British officers stopped at INIelwood, her plan- 

106 



GEORGE DIGGES 



tation, and imperatively ordered that dinner be 
at once prepared for them. When the meal was 
announced, the officer in charge sent for Mrs. 
Digges, requesting that she preside at the table. 
Lady born as she was, Mrs. Digges responded to 
the summons by her appearance, but haughtily 
declined the would-be hospitality of her self-con- 
stituted entertainers with the speech, " I can 
neither eat nor drink with the enemies of my 
country," after which with forced graciousness 
she swept from the room. The redcoats, so 
charmed with her words and action, rose to a man 
to toast her as " a valiant and patriotic lady." 

In the year 1851, there being no English heirs 
to the estate of Sir Dudley Digges, the American 
branch of the family made an effort to gain pos- 
session of Chilham Castle and its lands, and then 
it was that the Digges of Maryland were granted 
the prior title under the law of entail. 

The road is one of many winds and bends that 
leads back from our busy twentieth century to 
the year 1792 when George Digges died. There 
have been wars which excelled in bitterness the 
grave conflict in which he bore so valiant a part. 
His family has scattered throughout a broad 
land of untold wealth ; the acres of his plantation 
belong to those of another name; his old home 

107 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

with its spacious fireplace is no more, but to 
those who love and study our picturesque Co- 
lonial history, his memory is as fresh and green 
as the ivy which shelters from the storm the grave 
of this able as well as handsome old time cavalier. 



ALICE DE LANCEY 



MRS. RALPH IZARD 




£) OT many women whose 
lives were cast amidst 
the Revolutionary up- 
heaval had more to 
do personally with 
what was going on 
about them than Mrs. 
Ralph Izard, of South 
Carolina, the Palmetto State. 

Born Alice De Lancey, the petted daughter of 
Peter De Lancey, of New York, Mrs. Izard's 
life was one of varied experiences, reaching from 
the seclusion of a southern plantation to the gay- 
ety of the French Capital. Her grandfather, 
Etienne de Lanci, was a Huguenot noble who 
came to America in 1686, and from him Alice 
inherited her naturally proud bearing. Her 
girlhood was spent in the most brilliant social 
circles of New York, and though she possessed 
extraordinary beauty, it seems to have been her 
wonderful disposition which drew to her both the 
old and young. 

109 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

In 1767, Alice De Lancey became the bride 
of Ralph Izard, of South Carolina, whom she 
had met while a student at Harvard, and who 
was amply endowed with worldly goods and 
high ]3osition. The first few years of their mar- 
ried life were spent upon the old Izard estate 
in South Carolina, The Elms, where the bride 
at once adapted herself to a life very different 
from that to which she had been accustomed. 
Her husband being a man of great wealth, and 
the Izards one of the most distinguished families 
of the South, having emigrated to South Caro- 
lina in 1694, the young matron found for herself 
a ready-made position, and though existence 
upon a plantation might have bored to distraction 
many a woman raised as she had been, Alice 
Izard readily adapted herself to the change and 
found rides through her rice fields as alluring 
as those she had had along Maiden Lane. Know- 
ing few idle moments, she never lacked for an 
interest. She it was who introduced into South 
Carolina the culture of silk worms, hoping thus 
to benefit the State, and once she undertook a 
thing, she struggled with it until it became a 
success. 

The beautiful old garden at The Elms was 
her especial care and pride, and even in a land 

110 



ALICE DE LANCEY 



of fine gardens, stood peerless with its wealth of 
rose trees and cape jessamine hedges and the 
quaint little flowers that blossomed so kindly for 
her year after year. 

About 1769, the Izards went abroad to take 
up their residence for a time, the prime reason 
for the journey being the education of their chil- 
dren, though it must be admitted, Mr. Izard 
rather pined for a few years of life with his Eng- 
lish friends, who were counted among the highest 
at the English Court. It was during this sojourn 
that he wrote to America from Dijon: "Poli- 
tics have given me, during the course of last win- 
ter and spring, so much trouble and vexation, 
and so little pleasure that I am glad to get a 
little relief from them, by flying to a country 
where they are seldom or never the subject of 
conversation." A very few words, but the old, 
old cry proving the old time statesmen to have 
known the same trials that face the politicians 
of to-day. 

When she was in Europe, Alice De Lancey 

became a queen of fashion ; artists begged her to 

sit for them; great men besought introduction 

to her; high-born ladies copied her gowns and 

bonnets and tried in every way to imitate the 

soft Southern drawl that had become hers by 

111 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

adoption. Yet, through all the adulation she 
received, though the less level head of many 
of her American sisters would have been more 
than turned, Mrs. Izard carried herself with 
the same quiet dignity and unaffected manner 
that had been hers on the old plantation. 

Upon the outbreak of the Revolution, Alice 
Izard was eager to return with her husband to 
this country, but finding this impracticable ow- 
ing to the grave dangers of the voyage, was left 
with her children in France. Though, through 
her marriage, she naturally accepted very differ- 
ent views from her family as to the patriot cause, 
they being staunch Loyalists, while Mr. Izard 
was identified with Southern politics, Alice De 
Lancey was possessed of sufficient tact never to 
let politics interfere with the relationship. In 
Paris Mrs. Izard met the same social success 
she had known in other countries, and there, not- 
withstanding that she was one of the most ad- 
mired among women at exclusive salons, her 
beautiful domestic life became of even greater 
note. 

While she was a resident of London the beau- 
tiful portrait of her was painted by Thomas 
Gainsborough, R. A. 

In this portrait she is simply gowned in white ; 

112 




ALICE DkLANCEY 
MRS. RALPH IZARD 

From the Portrait by Gainsborough 



ALICE DE LANCEY 



the low-cut bodice is surplice fashioned and into 
the folds is thrust a pink rose with leaves and 
bud. The great loose sleeves fall from sloping 
shoulders, being relieved where they are thrown 
back, with a bit of narrow lace; the waist is out- 
lined by a gracefully tied scarf of blue which is 
in happy contrast to the roses tumbling from 
the basket held by the delicate fingers of the 
left hand. iThe natural oval of the high-bred 
face is very much accentuated by the towering 
coiffure into which is twined a rope of pearls, 
the same jewels clasping the slender throat. The 
forehead is high; the brow raised a trifle 
haughtily, the eyes softly blue and full of soul, 
while the tiny ear set close to the head, the slim 
straight nose and exquisite mouth attest the 
faultless beauty of the young matron. Alto- 
gether, Gainsborough is at his best in this por- 
trait, into which he has suffered no landscape 
background to detract. Upon the back of the 
canvas is inscribed: " Mrs. Alice Izard, formerly 
Alice De Lancey. Painted in London, by Gains- 
borough, in 1772." 

Copley also presents this lovely woman in a 
portrait of herself and husband, done when they 
were in Rome, in 1774. By the time the artist 
had completed his splendid work, which is after 

8 113 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

the style of Reynolds, and considered one of his 
finest specimens, the Revolution was hovering 
over the Colonies, so no money could be sent Mr. 
Izard from his South Carolina home, and as the 
cost was two hundred guineas, he was forced to 
leave the painting with Copley ; so for fifty years 
it remained stored away in the attic of that 
family. Later, she sat to Malbone for a minia- 
ture, and, though a century and more has passed 
since her time, it is very easy for latter-day ad- 
mirers to form a clear conception of her exquisite 
beauty. 

After Cornwallis admitted his defeat, Mrs. 
Izard brought her family back to America, 
where once more they took up their residence at 
The Elms, and Ralph Izard assumed an im- 
portant position in the affairs of his country. 
From 1789 to 1795 he represented South Caro- 
lina in the United States Senate, and was held 
in the highest esteem by President Washing- 
ton owing to his integrity and purity of charac- 
ter, as well as his ability as a statesman. 

Not only was Alice De Lancey the possessor 
of a beautiful face and amiable disposition in 
times of success ; when reverses came, as they did 
in the course of time, her magnificent character 
asserted itself, and during the long, seven years' 

114 



"E. fc 



B X 




ALICE DE LANCEY 



illness of her husband, she proved not only the 
devoted and untiring nurse, but the capable man- 
ager of all his affairs, both great and small. The 
supervision of an estate as large as The Elms 
was no easy matter, yet Mrs. Izard not only un- 
dertook it, but succeeded. 

By this time, the years were adding up upon 
her; her children were grown, with the excep- 
tion of one who had died, leaving to her the en- 
tire care of two orphan grandchildren. But 
through all her trials she was ever cheerful, car- 
ing for her husband with fondest affection ; find- 
ing time each day to read to him; attending 
faithfully to all his correspondence, a perfect 
woman at home and full of charity abroad. In 
the death of her husband, in 1804, she felt that 
the last link that bound her to this world had 
been broken, and yet she lived on without a 
murmur of rebellion. She was pious, but her 
piety was of the cheerful kind; she was resigned 
when troubles fell upon her, and she knew many. 
In all her beautiful life Alice De Lancey was a 
most superior woman, and when, at the age of 
eighty-seven, she was called to the greater life, 
she left behind an impress that will live on 
through the centuries. She left unlimited mem- 
ories to answer for the goodness of her life, and 

115 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

as one gives a last glance at the time-coated por- 
trait made when she was so young and fair, 
there is a throbbing wish that she might step 
from the tarnished frame to tell this unenlight- 
ened generation the true secret of how to live. 



BENJAMIN THOMPSON 



COUNT RUMFORD 




UT for a bit of petty 
jealousy, which was as 
unexpected as it was 
unfair, another name 
might have stood high 
enrolled among the 
valiant men of our 
Revolution, and as 
small happenings have often changed the tide of 
war so have men's lives been directed from their 
natural courses by veritable straws. 

iTo-day the name of Benjamin Thompson has 
no place in the historic annals of America, yet, 
but for one apparently trifling circumstance, the 
chances are that no man would have borne a 
braver, fairer record in the war of '76 than this 
New England boy. 

Born in Woburn, Massachusetts, March 26th, 
1753, Benjamin Thompson boasted only a pub- 
lic school education, but even in the scant learn- 
ing that in this way came to him, showed such 
a remarkable aptitude for mathematics that 

117 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

when he was fifteen years old he could calculate 
an eclipse. The boy was not one of ordinary 
clay, and in him was the fire of ambition that 
could never smoulder though it was only through 
his own arduous efforts that it could be made to 
flame. Bit by bit he gained his knowledge, work- 
ing between the times of study in order to meet 
expenses, his occupations covering the field from 
dry goods clerk to schoolmaster, and it was in 
Rumford (now Concord), New Hampshire, that 
he first taught. 

The undeniable ability and application of the 
young New Englander caught the attention of 
Governor Wentworth, and when the latter was 
looking for officers to command the New Hamp- 
shire regiments, he honored Thompson with the 
commission of major, a circumstance insignifi- 
cant in itself, yet one which changed the entire 
current of the young man's life. Being less 
than twenty-one, Major Thompson was violently 
opposed by his officers as well as men, the ma- 
jority of whom were older than himself; in fact, 
so great was their enmity, that after heaping in- 
sult after insult upon him, they threatened to 
tar and feather him upon the flimsy pretext of 
his having Tory inclinations. Faced with such 
malicious unpopularity, the youthful major left 

118 



BENJAMIN THOMPSON 



New Hampshire in 1774, though in doing so he 
was forced to leave the wife he had married 
three years before and their one child. Going 
to Boston, Benjamin Thompson at once asso- 
ciated himself with General Gage, and General 
Washington, having met and appreciated the 
military genius of the man, was on the point of 
commissioning him in the artillery when again 
the enmity of the New Hampshire officers as- 
serted itself. This time their bitterness resulted 
in the public trial of the unfortunate man, which 
took place in Woburn in 1775, and in that trial 
Thompson was neither acquitted nor condemned. 
How keenly this patriot born must have re- 
sented the gross injustice done him by the coun- 
try he would have served so well! Nor can one 
sit in judgment upon him for converting his en- 
tire property into money and leaving America, 
even his family, to make a name for himself 
abroad. This move, which was made in October, 
1775, seems to have been a final separation be- 
tween Benjamin Thompson and his wife, born 
Sarah Walker, though she was Mrs. Rolfe when 
he married her, a woman of some means; but 
later in his life we hear of his love for his daugh- 
ter. Going to Canada, the self-exile found recog- 
nition, and was granted many honors, being 

119 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

even made secretary of that Colony. Not until 
1781 did Thompson return to America, and then 
it was to raise in New York a regiment known 
as the King's American Dragoons, of which he 
became lieutenant-colonel. With this grave 
step, the connection between Benjamin Thomp- 
son and his country was severed forever, so when 
the Revolution was over he went at once to Eu- 
rope from where he never returned, and where 
great honors were heaped upon him. He was 
then twenty-eight, and so impressed Lord Ger- 
maine, to whom he had borne despatches, with 
his intellect, his graceful bearing and knowledge 
of American affairs, that the nobleman at once 
became his devoted friend and advanced him, in 
less than three years, to the position of Under 
Secretary of State. A Tory refugee, who had 
gone from Salem, Massachusetts, to London, 
gives in his journal an interesting paragraph in 
regard to Benjamin Thompson. " This young 
man, when a shop lad to my next door neighbor, 
ever appeared active, good natured and sensible ; 
by a strange concurrence of events, he is now 
the Under Secretary of State to Lord George 
Germaine. His income arising from this source 
is, I am told, near 7000 Pounds a year." 

Benjamin Thompson, the New England born 

120 



BENJAMIN THOMPSON 



youth, became a hero in the war between Austria 
and Turkey, distinguishing himself for his mili- 
tary science at Bavaria, Vienna and Munich. 
In the beautiful English garden established by 
him in the latter city, there stands a monu- 
ment erected in his honor, upon which is the 
inscription : 

" To him who rooted out the greatest of public evils, 

Idleness and Mendicity, relieved and instructed 

the poor, and founded many institutions for 

the education of youth. 

Go, Wanderer, and strive to equal him in genius 

and activity, and us in gratitude." 

This soldier of fortune, who had been knighted 
by King George III, received every attention at 
the exclusive Viennese court and became a power 
in Bavaria, where, in just fifteen years from the 
time he had peddled in the streets of Boston 
wood cut with his own hands, he became privy 
counsellor to the Elector, and was made Count 
of the Holy Roman Empire. 

In 1790 this American had become so re- 
nowned as an exponent of domestic economy 
and army reform that he was made Count of the 
Holy Roman Empire, and thus it is that he has 
since been known as Count Rumford. Was it 

121 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

a trick of pride, of native love or of revenge ful- 
filled that persuaded Sir Benjamin Thompson 
to take the name of his American home when he 
was knighted? Whatever may have been the 
cause, Count Rumford to-day stands as the most 
prominent name the New Hampshire town has 
ever had ; a citizen it might have held to its ever- 
lasting fame. 

Sir Benjamin Thompson was both farmer and 
inventor; he was as thoroughly schooled in all 
the social graces as he was in military art and 
science. He proved beyond question his states- 
manship when he saved Munich from falling into 
the hands of the Allied Armies; he showed his 
philanthropy when he banished beggary from 
Bavaria by simple social schemes, and his name as 
a scientist was established when he first discov- 
ered heat as a mode of motion. But apart from 
all else, Count Rumford's name would have been 
destined to live as the founder of the Royal In- 
stitution of Great Britain. 

Gibbon, the historian, to whom Thompson, or 
rather Rumford, was personally known, spoke of 
him as " Secretary, Colonel, Admiral and Phi- 
losopher Thompson." Another chronicler de- 
scribes him thus: " Strikingly handsome, with 
bright blue eyes, dark auburn hair, nearly six 

122 




BENJAMIN THOMPSON 
COUNT RUMFORU 

From the Portrait by (iainsborough 






/ 



/^Wor^. ^^ 



BENJAMIN THOMPSON 



feet in height, athletic, a graceful horseman, a 
skillful swordsman, spoke French and German, 
thus possessing all the advantages of a veritable 
Admirable Crichton." 

Of the physical strength and beauty of this 
remarkable man we may judge from a portrait 
by Thomas Gainsborough ; a portrait which in it- 
self has an interesting history, parts of which will 
doubtless never be known. This is said to be the 
only picture of a distinguished American ever 
painted by that renowned artist, and is, therefore, 
quite unique as well as a brilliant example of 
Gainsborough's best style. When he sat for this 
portrait. Count Rumford was about thirty, with a 
face without lines yet full of intelligence. The 
nose is slender and just a bit aquiline, his eyes 
splendid and his mouth clear cut and decisive. 
He is in Court dress, and the auburn hair of 
which one of his admirers wrote is hidden be- 
neath the white periwig, and the superb ease with 
which his head is held bespeaks the self-posses- 
sion of the adopted count. 

In 1804 Count Rumford again married, this 
time the daughter of M. Lavoisier, the eminent 
chemist of France, whose salon was the last of 
the eighteenth century in Paris, and was fre- 
quented by Laplace, Guizot, Cuvier, Lagrange, 

123 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

and Arago. This union, however, was never 
happy, and resulted in a separation, after which 
Benjamin Thompson moved to Auteuil, where 
he resided with his daughter. Count Rumford 
always meant to return to the United States 
to end his days, and had selected Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, for his home. In order to encour- 
age him in this idea President John Adams sent 
him this communication: "We have made pro- 
visions for the institution of a military academy, 
and I wish to commit its formation to your ex- 
perience and its future government to your care. 
In addition, I am authorized to offer you the 
appointment of Inspector-General of Artillery." 
What a satisfaction this message must have been 
to the expatriate, though he never accepted the 
honors his native country held out to him, but 
lived on in France. This man, of whom Cuvier 
said, " Rumford lavished his own money to teach 
others how to save theirs," was buried in the 
old cemetery at Autueil, where he rests in a lit- 
tle corner near the south wall, and his tomb is 
now a place of pilgrimage to Americans, who 
lift their hats in patriotic respect for their self- 
exiled countryman. 

It was on the twenty-first day of August, in 
1814, that Sir Benjamin Thompson died. To 

124 



BENJAMIN THOMPSON 



the American Academy of Art he had given five 
thousand dollars, to the Royal Society of Lon- 
don the same amount, and in both instances the 
gifts were to found prizes bearing his name, 
which were to be awarded for the most important 
discoveries affecting light and heat. Curiously 
enough, he was the first winner of liis own gift. 
In his will Harvard was left a sum which founded 
the Rumford professorship in 1816. 

What a keen satisfaction it must have been tc 
this man who, by his determined efforts, had 
made of himself a brilliant linguist, dashing sol- 
dier, Colonial statesman, and scientific inventor, 
to shower such munificence upon the country 
which had turned him adrift! And if there is 
any satisfaction in the laws of compensation, 
surely this American born man who became a 
foreign nobleman must have been compensated. 
But how much more proud could our country 
have been had Benjamin Thompson been al- 
lowed to remain to the last her devoted son, and 
what a commentary it is upon the men who so 
selfishly and cruelly shattered his patriotic am- 
bition that of them all the world to-day knows 
not even one name! 



ns 



JOHN MACPHERSON 




HE years that have 
come between this and 
the period of the Col- 
onies have naturally in- 
vested those far-away 
days with the coloring 
of poesy, and the novel- 
ist who seeks his mate- 
rial in the romance of American history would 
find ample to repay him by studying the life of 
John Macpherson, whose beautiful vigor and un- 
daunted heroism would afford a superb central 
figure for a romance, whether it be tragic or 
sentimental. 

To thoroughly understand the character of 
this splendid soldier, one must go back of him 
for a glimpse of his parents. His father, Cap- 
tain John Macpherson, one of the wealthiest and 
most notable men of Pennsylvania, was also one 
of the bravest of his time. While he inherited 
some money, it was by his own work that he 
added greatly to his fortune, and he it was who 
founded the famous estate of INIount Pleasant. 

126 



JOHN MACPHERSON 



John Adams, who visited Mount Pleasant in 
1775, wrote of his host: " His seat is upon the 
banks of the Schuylkill. He has been nine times 
wounded in battle ; is an old sea commander, made 
a fortune by privateering, had an arm twice shot 
off, and was shot through the leg." It may be 
seen from Mr. Adams' description that the old 
captain was a bit out of the ordinary, and one 
glance into the pages of the first Directory of 
Philadelphia, published by him and said to be the 
most literal book ever brought out, surely 
proves this. 

In this curious volume, under the letter " I " 
may be read: " I won't tell you," just as the an- 
swer was made to the canvasser; under "C" 
one will find " Cross woman," while " W " is 
rich in " What you please." 

When we also learn that Margaret Rodgers, 
the wife of Captain Macpherson and mother of 
the younger John, was an exceptionally fine 
woman, of Scotch-Irish extraction, we find but 
little to wonder at in the career of the son. 

At Mount Pleasant, in 1754, John Macpher- 
son was born. Being the eldest son, every pos- 
sible advantage was given him by his parents, 
and he was accordingly carefully educated, first 
by a tutor and then at Princeton, which college 

127 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

he left about 1772. Following this, he went to 
England to be fitted for the legal profession, and 
in a letter written to his friend, William Pat- 
terson, from London, gives an excellent insight 
into the life of a student. 

This letter bears the date of September 30th, 
1771, and in it he writes: " I shall attempt no 
discussion of London, as you must have seen 
better accounts of it than I am able to give ; but 
will give you a little Idea of the Temple which 
is a collection of houses owned by diiFerent men. 
Every student hires his chambers at the best 
rate he can, and is under no control at all, either 
as to study or behaviour. The gate is always 
open & we carry our keys in our pockets. Those 
who are admitted in any of the Societies of the 
Inns of Court are obliged to dine so many times 
every term, for 3 years, in the hall, if they mean 
to be called to the bar, & this is the only restraint 
the Templars are laid under." 

Unfortunately, the hopes of the father for this 
promising young man were never realized, for, 
when the Revolution faced America, John Mac- 
pherson, Junior, was one of the first to volunteer, 
and, pitiably enough, was one of the first to fall. 
Though then but an inexperienced lad of twenty- 
one, his services were so important, his bravery 

128 




MAJOR JOHN MAC I'HK:{S()\ 

At the age of 19 




The M:i(|)hers,.M Arm 



JOHN MACPHERSON 



so intrepid, that he soon rose to be major in the 
Continental forces and was made aide-de-camp 
to General Montgomery. 

But for some of the unfathomable reasons of 
fate, this life which blossomed so brilliantly was 
doomed to meet an early and tragic end. The 
night before the storming of Quebec, in 1775, 
some weird instinct seems to have warned the 
young officer of the fatality that lay before him, 
and in fancy we can almost see him sitting in 
the cheerless camp over which the pall of silence 
rested, and writing to his father the letter that 
was to be delivered only in case he fell. Six 
months later, this pathetically beautiful letter 
was sent to Captain Macpherson by General 
Schuyler, who broke to the old father the heavi- 
ness of the blow which had befallen him. " Per- 
mit me, sir," General Schuyler's note reads, " to 
mingle my tears with yours for the loss we have 
sustained — you, as a father, I, as a friend. My 
dear young friend fell by the side of his General 
as much lamented as he was beloved; and that I 
assure you, sir, was in an eminent degree. This, 
and his falling like a hero, will console in some 
measure a father who gave him the example of 
bravery, which the son in a short military career 
improved to advantage. 

9 129 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

" General Montgomery and his corpse were 
both interred by General Carleton with military 
honors. 

" Your most obedient and humble servant, 

" Ph. Schuyler. 

" Albany, June 24th, 1776." 

We turn from the general's letter to the pit- 
eous leave-taking of the son from his father, 
and the glorious sacrifice of the boy for his coun- 
try is almost lost sight of in reading the hurried 
words; and if our eyes grow dim at the pity of 
it and stray tears blot for a moment the yellowed 
pages, who could blame us for the regretful 
thoughts that burn into our minds? The boy 
died a hero. If he had lived, perhaps but sur- 
mises are futile and this letter lives to tell of 
the great heart that beat within him. 

" My Dear Father: 

" If you receive this it will be the last this 
hand shall ever write you. Orders are given for 
a general storm on Quebec this night, and 
Heaven only knows what will be my fate. But 
whatever it may be, I can not resist the inclina- 
tion I feel to assure you that I experience no 
reluctance in this cause to venture a life which I 

130 



JOHN MACPHERSON 



consider is only but to be used when my country 
demands it. In moments like these such an as- 
sertion will not be considered a boast by anyone, 
by my father I am sure it can not. It is need- 
less to tell that my prayers are for the happi- 
ness of the family and its preservation in this 
general confusion. Should Providence in its 
wisdom call me from rendering the little assist- 
ance I might to my country, I could wish my 
brother did not continue in the service of her 
enemies. 

" That the all-gracious Disposer of human 
events may shower on you, my mother, brothers, 
and sisters, every blessing our natvn-e can re- 
ceive is, and will be to the last moment of my 
life, the sincere prayer of your dutiful and af- 
fectionate son, 

" JOITN MaCPHERSON. 

" Headquarters before Quebec, 
" 30th Dec. 1775." 

The brother referred to was William Mac- 
pherson, then an officer in the Sixteenth Regi- 
ment of the English Army, who, upon learning 
what his brother wished, resigned his commission, 
and afterwards, under General Lafayette, 
served his own country with distinction. 

131 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

In the home of one of Captain Macpherson's 
descendants, there hangs in an honored place, a 
superb portrait of Major John Macpherson, for 
which he sat when he was just nineteen. The 
face is one of unquestioned attraction, well 
worthy of a part in history or romance. The 
eyes are deep set, perhaps a bit melancholy as 
if back of them were the realization of how soon 
they were to close; the brow is clear, the fore- 
head intellectual, the chin firm, while the well- 
moulded mouth and clear-cut nose lend to the 
hero a manly beauty. The hair is powdered and 
worn in a queue and the Continental uniform he 
wears is set off to perfection by his soldierly 
bearing. Curiously enough, the artist in his 
fancy brought the figure out vigorously from 
a dim background and shadowy trees, with, back 
of all, the dying sun. There is as much promise 
in the face as there was in the life, and had he 
lived John Macpherson would undoubtedly have 
added another valiant commander to those of the 
Revolution. 

He responded to the call of his country to 
meet the death of a hero, and sleeps for all time 
near the very spot upon which he fell; nor can 
we do better in closing the page of this valiant 
life than by borrowing the words of Bancroft, 

133 



JOHN MACPHERSON 



who wrote of him as " a youth as spotless as 
the new fallen snow, which was his winding 
sheet; full of genius for war, lovely in temper, 
honored by the affection and confidence of his 
chief, dear to the Army, leaving not his like 
behind him." 



SARAH VANBRUGH LIVINGSTON 



MRS. JOHN JAY 




RS. John Jay was so 
wise a woman that her 
pretty head was not 
turned by c o m p 1 i- 
ments, even so great as 
to have the audience of 
a French theatre rise 
en masse upon her en- 
trance, mistaking the wife of the American 
diplomat for their beautiful queen, Marie 
Antoinette." 

Thus one writer introduces us to the wife of 
one of the most distinguished statesmen of the 
trying period that followed naturally in the wake 
of the Revolution. Sarah Van Brugh Living- 
ston, the daughter of Governor Livingston of 
New York, was named in honor of her father's 
grandmother, by whom she had been reared. 
In accordance with the high position of her 
family, she was very carefully educated and 
shielded from the trials and troubles that come 
so often in the young lives of many less fortu- 

134 




SARAH VAN BKl GH LIVINGSTON 

MRS. JOHN JAY 

From the Portrait by R. K. Pine 



SARAH VAN BRUGH LIVINGSTON 

nate beings. From her girlhood, Sarah Living- 
ston was noted for her great beauty which at- 
tracted to her men of senior years who found in 
her splendid intellect a wit and understanding 
that might cope with any man's. 

Belle that she was, she was not long, however, 
in choosing her life-time partner, for she counted 
barely eighteen years when, on the twenty- eighth 
day of April, in 1774, she married John Jay, 
a man of brilliant promise and eleven years her 
senior. The first few years of Mrs. Jay's mar- 
ried life were spent in her father's home, as the 
many important public duties of her husband 
made it impossible for him to remain any length 
of time in one place, so the young wife had to 
be content with very short though very frequent 
visits from him. 

But when John Jay was appointed American 
Minister to the Spanish Court, Mrs. Jay accom- 
panied him, and from that time on took her 
place as one of the most charming and promi- 
nent women in international affairs. After their 
successful sojourn in Madrid, Mr. Jay was or- 
dered to Paris, and here his wife at once became 
an acknowledged leader in the American colony. 
This was in 1782, and three years later, in 1785, 
Miss Adams wrote from the French city: 

135 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

" Every person who knew her when here be- 
stows many encomiums on Mrs. Jay: Madame 
de Lafayette says she was well acquainted with 
her, and very fond of her, adding that Mrs. Jay 
and she thought alike, that pleasure might be 
found abroad, but happiness only at home, in 
the society of one's family and friends." 

After her return to America, Mrs. Jay's posi- 
tion was second only in importance to that of 
" Lady Washington "; with her perfect beauty, 
her gracious bearing and unspoiled nature, with 
her tactful ability and unerring social judgment, 
she might well have been called a peerless leader. 

What a glorious day it was when women ruled 
as they always should by virtue of their woman- 
liness! they graced so faultlessly the homes of 
their distinguished husbands, content to let them 
have first place in the world of work and politics. 
Happy in merging her identity in that of her 
statesman husband, Sarah Van Brugh Living- 
ston lived a life more worthy of emulation than 
envy. Born to the manor, bred to the purple, 
she never forgot that she was just a woman; 
" with her father's stern patriotism, she blended 
features of gentleness, grace and beauty pecu- 
liarly her own," so it is readily appreciated that 
she was a well-chosen helpmate for the man of 

136 




PHILIP LIVINGSTON 




The Livingston Anns 



SARAH VAN BRUGH LIVINGSTON 

whom Daniel Webster says: "When the spot- 
less ermine of the judicial robe fell on John Jay, 
it touched nothing less spotless than itself." 

For those who may doubt the word-painted 
beauty of this grande dame of the early Repub- 
lic, there are portraits left as proof. The ear- 
liest shows us Sarah Livingston of seventeen 
sunmiers and as exquisite a bit of girlhood as 
the most critical could desire. Pine, the creator 
of this delightful canvas, portrays her in a quaint 
mull frock puffed in the sleeves and frilled about 
the neck with an entire absence of lace or other 
trimming. A loose scarf is wound about the 
half-length figure and a floppy leghorn hat tied 
under the chin with the same soft stuff shows to 
perfection the dainty face beneath. The brown 
hair with gold lights is worn short and falls in 
loose curls over both shoulders and brow; the 
eyes are dreamy and set off by long lashes ; the 
nose is faultlessly classic, the lips full and rich, 
while in the chin one sees a firmness of character 
the rest of the girlish feature might appear to 
lack. Altogether, this profile portrait may be 
counted one of the most attractive in subject 
and pose of any done in the late eighteenth 
century. 

After she became Mrs. John Jay, Daniel 

137 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

Huntington painted a miniature of her from 
which a portrait was copied. The latter shows 
the young matron of the world, dressed in the 
height of fashion but with the same unaffected 
beauty of the winsome girl. At the time of this 
picture, Mrs. Jay must have been at her great- 
est loveliness. Her brown hair, which grows 
beautifully around her forehead, is dressed high 
on the head and low on the neck, with a wreath 
of tiny roses just back of the pompadour. The 
beauty of the face speaks for the character of 
the woman, while the satin gown with its rose 
quillings of lace and pointed bodice displays to 
advantage the superb neck; two pink rosebuds 
nestle in the lace and below them is tied a soft 
ribbon bow. Surely no one need wonder that 
she was taken for the French queen, for Eliza- 
beth Jay's beauty equalled if not excelled that of 
poor Marie Antoinette. 




SAHAIl \ AN BULGII LlVIXtiSTO.N 
MRS. JOHN JAY 

From the Miniature by Huntington 



PEGGY CHEW 



MRS. JOHN EAGER HOWARD 




9 HAT a horde of roman- 
tic associations cling to 
the name of Peggy 
Chew! Her life was 
one of untold interest, 
gay yet deep, filled 
with the froth, but ad- 
mitting the kernel of 
sincere sentiment and attachment. 

Margaret Oswald Chew, better known as 
Peggy, was the daughter of Judge Benjamin 
Chew, and was born in 1759. 

One of four lovely sisters, pretty Peggy's 
child life opened the way for her place in the 
great world which she entered to become at once 
its queen. As the Mischianza will be irrevocably 
associated with Sir William Howe's occupancy 
of Philadelphia, in 1778, so will the name of 
Peggy Chew always be interwoven with the his- 
tory of that famous entertainment, for she it 
was who claimed as knight John Andre, whose 
artistic insight arranged the wonderful fete. 

139 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

In the story of this spectacular affair written 
by Andre, we pause at the entry: 

" Third knight, Captain Andre, in honor of 
Miss P. Chew — Squire, Lieutenant Andre. 

" Device, two game-cocks fighting; motto — 
' no rival.' " 

Andre himself designed not only the costumes, 
but the tickets, and treasured among some his- 
toric papers are his drawings for both. A con- 
temporary and friend of John Andre's leaves 
some doubt in our minds as to whether his at- 
tention to Peggy Chew meant more than a pass- 
ing interest. It was a great day for verse writ- 
ing, and though the brilliant young officer 
penned many lines to fair Peggy, they may have 
meant only pastime and custom. Be that as it 
may, we like to believe the little romance was 
sincere; we like to think that upon his very first 
glimpse of Pretty Peggy in the rare old garden 
at Cliveden, John Andre's heart beat true to the 
words he wrote. 

" The Hebrews write & those who can 
Believe an apple tempted man 

To touch the tree exempt; 
Tho' tasted at a vast expense, 
'Twas too delicious to be sure, 
Not mortally to tempt. 
140 




PEGGY CHEW 
MRS. JOHN EAGER HOWARD 




COLONEL JOHN EAGER HOWARD 



PEGGY CHEW 



" But had the tree of knowledge bloomed, 
Its branches by much fruit perfumed, 

As her enchants my view — 
What mortal Adams taste could blame. 
Who would not die to eat the same. 

When gods might wish a Chew." 

This and many other poetic effusions Andre 
dedicated to Mistress Peggy along with his nar- 
rative of the Mischianza. Let her great-grand- 
daughter describe this manuscript to us: 

" Faded and yellow with age, the little parch- 
ment vividly calls up before us the gallant young 
English officer, eager and full of keen interest, 
throwing himself with youthful ardor, with light- 
hearted seriousness, into this bit of superb friv- 
olity. On the cover he has outlined a wreath of 
leaves around the initials ' P. C, and he has 
made a water color sketch to show the design 
and colors of his costume as a knight of the 
' Blended Rose,' and that of his brother. Lieu- 
tenant William Lewis Andre, who acted as his 
esquire and bore his shield, with its quaint motto, 
* No rival.' The device, ' Two game cocks 
fighting,' must have proved too difficult to draw, 
for he uses in his picture that of Captain Wat- 
son — a heart and a wreath of laurel, ' love and 
glory.'" 

141 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

There is no need to dwell upon the sad ending 
to the little romance. Andre, brave, chivalrous, 
fascinating, young, died — disgraced in the eyes 
of Peggy Chew's countrymen. Great indeed, 
must have been the suffering of the beauty from 
the time that the cloud that enveloped her gay 
knight fell upon him, until his piteous death; 
for a time she admitted an intense grief, but hers 
was too young and bright a nature for long re- 
pining, and before many years had passed she 
was again in the whirl of the gay world she so 
well adorned. 

" What is life, in short," she writes, " but one 
continued scene of pain and pleasure varied and 
chequered with black spots like the chess-board, 
only to set the fairer ones in a purer light? " 
Which musing proves the fair Peggy to have 
been a bit of a philosopher. 

Nine years after the Mischianza, Margaret 
Chew, at the age of twenty-eight, resigned her 
belleship, and in 1787 was married to Colonel 
John Eager Howard, of Baltimore, who distin- 
guished himself so ably at the battle of Cowpens. 
Foremost among the notables who witnessed the 
ceremony was General Washington, who re- 
corded in his diary of 1787: "Dined at Mrs. 
Chews' with the wedding guests." 

142 




IHE MISCHIANZA TICKET 




MAJOR JOHN ANDRK 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

will always waft the breath of romance, will ever 
hold the interest of American women, among 
whom few will be found who do not appreciate 
the life history of this beautiful belle of the 
Mischianza. 



ELIZABETH SCHUYLER 

MRS. ALEXANDER HAMILTON 




HERE were a number 
of women whose names 
figured conspicuously 
in the powerful in- 
fluences during the 
Revolution, but there 
was none deserving of 
greater attention than 
Elizabeth Schuyler. Born to the purple, so to 
speak, this young girl reached the estate of 
woman just as the war cloud broke so severely, 
tearing from the Colonial homes husbands, 
fathers, brothers, and leaving to the women the 
task of bearing many heavy burdens. 

Elizabeth Schuyler was born at the old home- 
stead in Albany, New York, the daughter of 
Philip Schuyler, one of the bravest generals of 
the Colonies, and his gifted wife, Katherine Van 
Rennselaer. From father and mother she in- 
herited courage and ability, both of which quali- 
ties were put so genuinely to the test in the 
course of the war's progress. As a maiden, her 



10 



145 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

name has come down through history as a noted 
belle, but perhaps her life history holds best the 
interest by virtue of the romance that will always 
cling to the name of her illustrious husband, 
Alexander Hamilton. 

When General Washington had his headquar- 
ters in Morristown, New Jersey, Mistress Betsy 
was prime favorite with the officers when she 
visited her father in camp, and here the acquaint- 
ance which soon ripened into something far 
deeper, began between herself and Hamilton, 
the youthful aide-de-camp to the Commander- 
in-Chief. Despite the grave times, it was a merry 
assemblage which witnessed the union of these 
two favored young people. The old Schuyler 
mansion was in festive attire for the pretty bride 
and distinguished groom; toasts were drunk by 
the first men of the country ; dances were danced 
by the old as well as young, and though numer- 
ous marriages followed in the wake of this, this 
was the only one that took place in his family 
which gave sincere pleasure to General Schuyler 
and which he witnessed. 

After the war, when the Republican court 
was assembled in New York, Wasliington chose 
as his secretary the brilliant, versatile, perhaps 
erratic, Alexander Hamilton, and Elizabeth 

146 



ELIZABETH SCHUYLER 

Hamilton became one of the most prominent 
figures of social and official life. Modest and 
tactful, with beauty of feature and charm of 
manner, it is not remarkable that her face was 
frequently seen at the President's mansion al- 
most as one of the family, while on occasions of 
state, she was greatly relied upon by Lady 
Washington. 

But it was in her own home, whether as official 
or merely hospitable hostess, that Betsy Schuyler 
was at her best. When she received, her draw- 
ing-room is said to have been among the most 
brilliant and interesting of that period. At this 
time Mrs. Hamilton is spoken of by a contem- 
porary as " A charming woman who joined to all 
the graces the simplicity of an American wife," 
which description gives an idea of what she must 
have been at home and abroad, in public and 
private life. 

There is an excellent portrait of Mrs. Hamil- 
ton, painted by Ralph Earle, in 1787. The artist 
was then in prison for debt, and through the gen- 
erous order of Mrs. Hamilton was able to clear 
himself and thus be released. There are others, 
too, but these are lost sight of once one sees the 
life-sized crayon sketch done by Charles Martin, 
in 1851, sixty-four years after Betsy Hamilton 

147 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

had sat to the imprisoned artist. At this time, 
she was an old lady of ninetj^-f our ; her face is 
dehcately fragile yet full of character, the lines 
in it appearing more of intelligence than age. 

When the Capital was moved to Washington, 
Betsy Schuyler, with Dolly Madison, was looked 
upon as one of the capable leaders of the coterie 
which was truly called the most aristocratic, in- 
fluential and interesting of young America. Gay 
and frivolous when society required it, gentle 
and domestic in her own household, silent as the 
sphinx upon matters of political import, this 
lovely daughter of General Philip Schuyler had 
every right to the adulation accorded her. 

But as all too often comes to those who seem 
the least deserving, Elizabeth Hamilton was 
rudely awakened from her perfect happiness by 
the tragic event which cast a deep gloom over 
social and political America. When Alexander 
Hamilton fell on Richmond Hill that sultry July 
day in 1804, America lost one of her most loyal 
subjects, whatever may be said to the contrary 
by some. The country realized the loss of the 
great-minded, astute statesman who had been 
such an aid in its struggling finances, but it was 
left to the wife to feel the bitter separation from 
this most fascinating man who had been her 

148 




ELIZABETH SCHUYLER 
MRS. ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

From the Portrait by Ralph Earle 



ELIZABETH SCHUYLER 

lover, her husband, and the father of her chil- 
dren. The United States appreciated the power 
and possibilities of the statesman; Betsy Schuy- 
ler alone of all the world, knew the soul of 
the man. It was when this trial came upon her 
that the courage inlierited from both her mother 
and father stood her in such good stead ; the hap- 
piest chapter of her life had closed, and all the 
romance connected with the remarkable life of 
her husband must be forever but a vivid mem- 
ory, yet she must live on. And she had much to 
live for; there were little children whose features 
now and then recalled to her their father, so 
after a brief period when she had been all too will- 
ing to let her life drift out with Hamilton's, she 
reopened the book that is made up of so many 
days, and she reopened it as mother and friend. 
As the years passed on, Mrs. Hamilton grew 
more interesting and more beloved, and a young 
woman who met her after she was four score 
and ten has left among her letters a description 
which shows how well one's attention was held 
by this very remarkable and delightful old lady. 
" She was ninety-two years of age at this 
time," reads the faded writing, " and died two 
years after. She was a tiny little woman, most 
active and interesting, although she could never 

149 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

have been pretty in her Ufe. She kept me by 
her side, holding me by the hand, telling me of 
the things most interesting to me. How she 
knew Washington (with whom she was a great 
favorite), and Lafayette, who was 'a most in- 
teresting young man.' How they were often at 
the house of her father. General Philip Schuyler. 
How, when she was a child, she was free of the 
Washington residence, and if there was com- 
pany Mrs. Washington would dress her up in 
something pretty and make her stay to dinner, 
even if she came uninvited, so that she was pre- 
sentable at table. She showed me the Stuart 
portrait of Washington, painted for her, and for 
which he sat; the old Schuyler chairs and tiny 
mirrors; most interesting to me. This tiny dot 
of a woman and of such a great age, happened 
to think of something in her room which she 
wanted to show Abbie. Her daughter, Mrs. 
Hamilton Holley, offered to get it for her. ' Sit 
down, child, don't you think I can get it myself? * 
and up she went and got it, whatever it was." 

When Betsy Schuyler died, in 1853, she had 
counted ninety-four years in the binding of a 
century. Children were left to mourn her, chil- 
dren who kept the name pure and lived the best 
of their lives in their memories of her. Young 

150 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON' 

At the age of -2"2 
From the Portrait by James Peale, 1779 



ELIZABETH SCHUYLER 

at heart to the very last, active in mind, this 
gentle old lady who had been the belle of Wash- 
ington's camp and captured the brightest among 
his satellites, slipped from earth into eternity, 
having filled a place and left a name that might 
be emulated but could scarcely be excelled. 



CATHARINE ALEXANDER 



LADY KITTY DUER 




^HAT a flavor of ro- 
mance there is about 
the name of Lady 
Kitty Duer! We 
have read of her in 
old manuscripts, have 
gazed so long at her 
haughty portraits and 
coquettish miniatures that she almost seems a 
living presence, the embodiment of happiness 
and merriment, a true child of the gods indeed. 
The mother of Lady Kitty was Sarah Living- 
ston, a sister of the Governor of New York. 
Her father, William Alexander, major-general 
of the Continental forces, was a claimant to the 
Scottish earldom of Stirling, so it was through 
him that the little maid gained her title of 
" Lady." Ill-fated John Andre in his famous 
satire, " The Cow Chase," ridicules the so-called 
earl in the following verse : 

153 



CATHARINE ALEXANDER 

" Let none uncandidly infer 

That Stirling wanted spunk, 
The self-made Peer had sure been there, 
But that the Peer was drunk." 

Notwithstanding such little shafts of ridicule, 
we like to think of the gay girl as Lady Kitty; 
the part seems to fit so well the high-coifFed 
maiden of the old portrait, so, to the end of the 
chapter, that she shall be. 

Catharine, the youngest daughter, was nat- 
urally with her mother during the greater part 
of the war, and divided her time between the 
camp and New York City. An interesting bit 
of history of that time is left by her in a letter 
written from Parsippany, where she was among 
the refugees in 1778: "The sentiments of a 
great number have undergone a thorough change 
since they have been with the British army; as 
they have many opportunities of seeing flagi'ant 
acts of injustice and cruelty of which they could 
not have believed their friends capable. This 
convinces them that if they conquer, we must 
live in abject slavery." 

One year after these lines were written, July 
27th, 1779, Lady Kitty Alexander, the queen 
of fashion, was married to William Duer in the 
Stirling mansion, at Basking Ridge, New Jer- 

153 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

sey, then headquarters of General Greene. The 
most romantic temperament would have been 
well satisfied with this wedding which was solem- 
nized in the midst of such grave shadows. The 
bride was given in marriage by no less a person- 
age than General Washington, and during the 
reception which followed the ceremony the 
house was surrounded by a military guard, for 
fear the British might descend from New York. 
The groom, although he wrote colonel only be- 
fore his name, was fitted in every respect for 
his titled bride. Of noble birth, he had served as 
aide-de-camp to Lord Clive in India, but at the 
first call of America to arms, responded val- 
iantly by rendering many services of importance ; 
in fact, to William Duer is accredited the fail- 
ure of the Conway Cabal which aimed to take 
from General Washington the honor of com- 
manding the Revolutionary Army. Added to 
his mental attainments and physical courage, 
Colonel Duer was a remarkably handsome man 
as well as very rich, so it is not to be wondered 
at that he was considered the greatest catch in 
America or that Lady Kitty made merry at her 
wedding. Among the guests were numbered 
such distinguished families as the Stocktons, 
Boudinots, Southards, Kennedys, Mortons and 

154 




CATHAKIN E A LKXAN DER 
LADY KITTY DUER 



CATHARINE ALEXANDER 

Hatfields, while among her bridal gifts were 
handsome silver tokens from the Earl of Shel- 
borne, the Duchess of Gordon, and other titled 
friends of her father's. When the soldiers on 
guard were called for a glimpse of the beautiful 
bride, they sent up a rousing cheer as she daintily 
stepped out of the house onto the terrace. 

Naturally, the Duers were in very close touch 
with the Washingtons, and during the Presi- 
dency of the latter Lady Kitty was described as 
" a fine woman, though not a beauty, very so- 
ciable, and with most accomplished manners." 

The Reverend Manasseh Cutler, in writing of 
a dinner at the Duers, says of Lady Kitty: " She 
performed the honors of the table most grace- 
fully, was constantly attended by two servants 
in livery, and insisted on performing the whole 
herself." Further on the parson-statesman 
writes: " Colonel Duer is Secretary to the Board 
of Treasury, and lives in the style of a noble- 
man. I presume he had not less than fifteen 
different sorts of wine at dinner, and after the 
cloth was removed, besides most excellent cider, 
porter, and several other kinds of strong beer." 

Undoubtedly, William Duer was a gentleman 
of dashing personality; a man of the world with 
both talent and wit, though it must be admitted, 

155 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

with only too often a small regard for decorum. 

With the marriage of Lady Kitty, the hos- 
pitable doors of the Basking Ridge mansion 
closed upon the regal entertainments for which 
it had been so famed, for upon the death of Lord 
Stirling, his family were found to be almost pen- 
niless. Fortunately, this did not affect Lady 
Kitty, as through her husband's wealth she was 
enabled to continue in New York and Wash- 
ington the luxurious life she had always known. 
But sad days were in store for Lady Kitty; 
through unfortunate speculations. Colonel Duer 
lost all his fortune, and with it went his inter- 
est in the world. He died long before Lady 
Kitty, who was left to develop into an unattrac- 
tive old lady with withered, parchment-like skin, 
whose one extravagance was an occasional pinch 
of snufF ! Poverty forced her to keep a boarding- 
house in order to make ends meet, and bit by 
bit her household treasures and wedding silver 
went in exchange for the dollars that were so 
sorely needed. 

In her time of fashion, Lady Kitty Duer threw 
away with reckless freedom more than enough 
money than would have granted her a comfort- 
able, peaceful old age. 

Curiously enough, the lives of Catharine 

156 



CATHARINE ALEXANDER 



Alexander and Betsy Patterson bear a great 
similarity, the youthful belleship of both having 
drifted into a middle life of hardship, to end in 
poverty. But it shall please us to close the last 
pages of Lady Kitty's book of life and dwell 
only upon its brilliant chapters, for, after all, 
it is easy to retain the happy memories and for- 
get her less fortunate days. It was this ability 
which enabled Lady Kitty Duer to bear the hard- 
ships which came with old age, and during this 
trying period of her life she lived entirely in 
the brilliant past; she never tired recalling it, 
dwelling upon it in her thoughts or speaking of 
it to others, and the memories of her early hap- 
piness and grandeur must have in a great way 
been compensation for their aftermath. 



PEGGY SHIPPEN 



MRS. BENEDICT ARNOLD 




I HE life history of 
Peggy Shipper! was 
interesting, romantic 
and withal pitiful 
enough to furnish for 
all time a fruitful 
topic of conversation 
in our own country 
and abroad. Born of the most distinguished 
Colonial aristocracy, blessed with beauty of face 
and brilliancy of mind, this favored girl chose 
for herself an ill-starred life to the bitter dis- 
appointment of her family and her friends. 

Margaret, the youngest daughter of Edward 
Shippen, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, was 
born in 1761. Filled with the love of life, gay in 
temperament, with a vivid mentality unexcelled 
among the younger women of that time, it is 
small wonder that Peggy Shippen was the toast 
of the British officers when they were quartered 
in Philadelphia. Her father was a staunch up- 

158 



PEGGY SHIPPEN 



holder of American rights, but Pretty Peggy 
very naturally found the flattery of the redcoats 
most agreeable, and when the far-famed Mis- 
chianza took place, a clash seems to have come 
between the Colonial statesman and his fair 
daughter. As to who won, we cannot say, for 
the outcome seems to be enveloped more or less 
in a film of uncertainty. From one old chroni- 
cler we hear that the Shippen girls were among 
the most prominent at this historic fete, and John 
Andre, who played such a conspicuous part in 
the arrangement of the Mischianza, names them 
in his N^arrative which appeared in the Gentle- 
man's Magazine for August, 1778, where is 
written: " Lieutenant Winyard, in honor of Miss 
Peggy Shippen ; device, a bay-leaf ; motto, ' un- 
changeable.' " Good evidence, it would seem, 
that the fair Peggy was present, yet, some of her 
family insist that though she and her sisters had 
made every arrangement to go, having their cos- 
tumes in the house and their names on the pro- 
gramme, at the last moment their father forbade 
them most emphatically. 

Still, one likes to think of pretty Peggy at 
the royal fete; she was so much a part of the 
gayety of that period, such an ornament to Co- 
lonial society, that we can but think what 

159 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

both she and the Mischianza would have missed 
by her absence. Later, John Andre throws more 
light upon the subject when he writes to Mistress 
Peggy from New York offering to do some shop- 
ping for her, the letter showing clearly the inti- 
macy that existed between the young English 
officer and the daughter of the Whig Chief Jus- 
tice. 

" Headquarters, New York, 

the 16th of August, 1779." 

" It would make me very happy to become 
useful to you here. You know the Mischianza 
made me a complete milliner. Should you not 
have received supplies for your fullest equip- 
ment for that department, I shall be glad to en- 
ter into the whole detail of cap-wire, needles, 
gauze, etc., and to the best of my ability render 
you in these trifles services from which I hope 
you would infer a zeal to be further employed. 
I beg you would present my best respects to your 
sisters, to the Miss Chews, and to Mrs. Shippen 
and Mrs. Chew. 

" I have the honor to be with the greatest re- 
gard, madam, your most obedient and most hum- 
ble servant, 

" John Andre."' 

160 






^ 



'*♦', 



>f 



p^ 







PEGGY SHIPPF.N 
MRS. BENEDICT ARNOLD 

From the Original Drawing by Major Andtt" 



PEGGY SHIPPEN 



Whether Miss Peggy was present at the grand 
ball which followed in the wake of the Mischi- 
anza and was given in honor of the return of the 
Continental troops in Philadelphia is not known, 
but that she was very much en evidence when 
General Benedict Arnold entertained both Whig 
and Tory ladies, more than one faded old letter 
proves. At this dance, the attentions of the host 
to Margaret Shippen were so pronounced as to 
shortly afterwards bring from Mrs. Robert 
Morris the following note: " I must tell you that 
Cupid has given our little General a more mor- 
tal wound than all the hosts of Britons could, 
unless his present conduct can expiate for his 
past. Miss Peggy Shippen is the fair one." 

Though thirty-six years of age, more than 
twice her senior, and a widower, Benedict Ar- 
nold caught and held the fancy of this brilliant 
young girl, and in connection with his courtship 
is accused of presenting to Miss Shippen the 
same love letter with a change of name that had 
previously been written to another. This letter, 
unique in history as well as epistolary art, reads : 

* 
" Dear Madam : — 

" Twenty times have I taken up my pen to 
write to you, and as often has my trembling hand 

11 161 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

refused to obey the dictates of my heart — a 
heart which, though calm and serene amidst the 
clashing of arms and all the din and horrors of 
war, trembles with diffidence and the fear of giv- 
ing offence when it attempts to address you on 
a subject so important to its happiness. Dear 
Madam, your charms have lighted up a flame 
in my bosom which can never be extinguished; 
your heavenly image is too deeply impressed 
ever to be effaced. 

*' My passion is not founded on personal 
charms only: that sweetness of disposition and 
goodness of heart, that sentiment and sensibility 
which so strongly mark the character of the 
lovely Miss P. Shippen, renders her amiable be- 
yond expression, and will ever retain the heart 
she has once captivated. On you alone my hap- 
piness depends, and will you doom me to lan- 
guish in despair? Shall I expect no return to 
the most sincere, ardent and disinterested pas- 
sion? Do you feel no pity in your gentle bosom 
for the man who would die to make you happy? 
May I presume to hope that it is not impossible 
I may make a favorable impression on your 
heart? Friendship and esteem you acknowledge. 
Dear Peggy, suffer that heavenly bosom (which 
can not know itself the cause of pain without a 

163 



PEGGY SHIPPEN 



sympathetic pang) to expand with a sensation 
more soft, more tender than friendship. A union 
of hearts is undoubtedly necessary to happiness ; 
but give me leave to observe that true and per- 
manent happiness is seldom the effect of an al- 
liance founded on a romantic passion; where 
fancy governs more than judgment. Friendship 
and esteem, founded on the merit of the object, 
is the most certain basis to build a lasting hap- 
piness upon; and when there is a tender and ar- 
dent passion on one side, and friendship and 
esteem on the other, the heart (unlike yours) 
must be callous to every tender sentiment if the 
taper of love is not lighted up at the flame. 

" I am sensible your prudence and the affec- 
tion you bear your aimiable and tender parents 
forbids your giving encouragement to the ad- 
dresses of any one without their approbation. 
Pardon me, Dear Madam, for disclosing a pas- 
sion I could no longer confine in my tortured 
bosom. I have presumed to write to your Papa, 
and have requested his sanction to my addresses. 
Suifer me to hope for your approbation. Con- 
sider before you doom me to misery, which I 
have not deserved but by loving you too extrava- 
gantly. Consult your own happiness, and if in- 
compatible, forget there is so unhappy a wretch ; 



163 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

for may I perish if I would give you one mo- 
ment's inquietude to purchase the greatest possi- 
ble felicity to myself. Whatever my fate may be, 
my most ardent wish is for your happiness, and 
my latest breath will be to implore the blessing of 
heaven on the idol and only wish of my soul. 

" Adieu, dear Madame, and believe me unal- 
terably, your sincere admirer and devoted hum- 
ble servant, 

" B. Arnold. 

" Sept. 25, 1778. 

" Miss Peggy Shippen." 

Poor little Peggy! She married her command- 
ing soldier on the eighteenth day of April, in 
1779, and from that time on was involved in 
intrigues which, from constant fear and dread, 
must have faded the roses in her cheeks. First, 
it was the correspondence between Arnold and 
Andre into which she was mercilessly drawn; 
then the ignominious death of the latter which 
fell upon the head of her husband, all being 
crowned by the latter's treachery to his country. 

Margaret Arnold was such a bright light in 
dreary camp life, such a favorite with the offi- 
cers, that General Washington upon one oc- 
casion when Lafaj^ette intimated that Mrs. 

164 




BENEDICT ARNOLD 



PEGGY SHIPPEN 



Arnold would be waiting breakfast, responded: 
" Ah, you young men are all in love with Mrs. 
Arnold, and wish to get where she is as soon as 
possible. Go, breakfast with her — and do not 
wait for me." This was the very morning that 
news of Andre's capture reached the Com- 
mander-in-Chief and gave warning to Benedict 
Arnold that his day of retribution had come. 

Peggy Shippen felt her first touch of per- 
sonal tragedy when her husband, sending for her, 
confessed his wrong-doing, bade her farewell and 
fled to the " Vulture," which was waiting for 
Andre. From the ship he wrote to General 
Washington, assuring him that Mrs. Arnold was 
in no way implicated in his treason, and begging 
the Commander-in-Chief to allow her to go to her 
family in Philadelphia or join him as she thought 
best. As soon as the letter was read by Washing- 
ton, he sent a message to the grief-stricken young 
matron, commissioning the bearer: " Go to Mrs. 
Arnold and tell her that though my duty required 
no means should be neglected to arrest General 
Arnold, I have great pleasure in acquainting her 
that he is now safe on board a British vessel." 

From then on the sympathy of the world was 
hers. From far-away Spain, John Jay wrote: 
" All the world here are cursing Arnold, and 

165 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

pitying his wife"; while Robert Morris wrote 
feelingly: "Poor Mrs. Arnold! Was there ever 
such an infernal villain? " 

Yet Margaret Arnold clung to the man she had 
chosen as husband, and though she may be cen- 
sured as wrong in doing so, one can but commend 
the loyal heart that beat for him as faithfully in 
his time of trouble as it had in his days of pride. 
A letter from Alexander Hamilton to Betsy 
Schuyler, in which he writes of Mrs. Arnold, 
" Her horror at the guilt of the traitor is lost in 
her love of the man," is substantial proof of this. 

Even had Peggy Shippen wanted to remain 
in Philadelphia with her family, that privilege 
would not have been allowed, for, on October 
29th, 1780, the Council of Pennsylvania adopted 
the following resolution : 

" Philadelphia, Friday, Oct. 27, 1780. 
" iThe Counsel taking into consideration the 
case of Margaret Arnold (the wife of Benedict 
Arnold, an attainted traitor, with the enemy at 
New York) whose residence in this city has be- 
come dangerous to the public safety; and this 
board being desirous as much as possible, to pre- 
vent any correspondence and intercourse being 
carried on with persons of disaffected character 

166 



PEGGY SHIPPEN 



in this State and the enemy at New York, and 
especially with the said Benedict Arnold, there- 
fore Resolved: That the said Margaret Arnold 
depart this State within fourteen days from the 
date hereof, and that she do not return again 
during the continuance of the present war." 

For a time the expatriates lived at St. Johns, 
New Brunswick, where Mrs. Ai-nold at once as- 
sumed a position of prominence owing to her 
beauty of face and charm of manner. Their 
residence there, however, was of short duration, 
for in December, 1781, they moved to London, 
and Tarleton, meeting her in the latter place 
said: " She was the handsomest woman in 
England." 

Queen Charlotte became so interested in the 
beautiful young American matron that she comc- 
manded the court ladies to pay great attention 
to her and was instrumental in gaining for her 
a pension of five hundred pounds a year from 
Great Britain. 

Never was there a more affectionate family 
than the Benedict Arnolds. To Peggy Shippen, 
the man we brand as traitor was etev a hero, and 
she wrote to her father: "General Arnold's af- 
fection for me is unbounded, he is the best of 

167 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

husbands." And if she was a perfect wife in 
her trust and loj^alty, she was an ideal mother to 
her five children, four of whom were pensioned 
four hundred pounds sterling, paid by sign 
manual of the English king at the treasury, 
while the otlier was commissioned brigadier- 
general of an Indian command. Of these chil- 
dren, we read: " The sons of Margaret Shippen 
could not be other than gentlemen, and her 
daughter a gentle woman." 

As Peggy Shippen, this most unfortunate 
among women had tasted of life's brightest 
promise; as Margaret Arnold, she drank to the 
dregs its cup of tragedy, all of which we choose 
to forget, preferring to remember this darling 
of her family circle, the light-hearted little belle 
of the jNIischianza who played lightly with the 
hearts of men, yet never did a real wrong to 
any living being. This devoted wife and untir- 
ing mother, the dignified and gentle matron who 
bore so bravely the greatest of trials, was forty- 
three only when death called her to eternal rest 
on the twenty- fourth day of August, 1804. 

Perhaps life's bitter experience had shortened 
the natural term of this beautiful, graceful, and 
magnetic woman, whose later years seem to have 
been lost beneath the kindly veil of obscurity. 



ANNE WILLING 

MRS. WILLIAM BINGHAM 




MONG the womanly 
names that have hved 
through the centuries 
since social and politi- 
cal America became a 
power, that of beauti- 
ful Anne Willing, the 



daughter of Thomas 
Willing, of Philadelphia, admits no rival. 

On the twenty-sixth day of October, in the 
year 1780, when this slip of a girl was but six- 
teen, she was married to William Bingham, the 
richest man in Pennsylvania, who counted among 
his possessions two hundred thousand acres in 
one State alone. Thus it came to pass that the 
little beauty whose birth and rearing so well 
qualified her for the position, became a power 
in the social history of two countries. About the 
time of Anne Willing's marriage, we read that 
" Her beauty was splendid. Her figure, which 
was somewhat above the middle size, was well 
made. Her carriage was light and elegant, while 



169 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

ever marked by dignity and air. Her manners 
were a gift." Between the lines of this brief 
description one can easily appreciate what an ex- 
traordinarily gifted woman the young wife of 
William Bingham was. 

In 1784, Mrs. Bingham accompanied her hus- 
band to Europe, where she was at once presented 
at the Court of Louis XIV, and attracted such 
unlimited attention that from then on her place 
in the highest circles of French society was as- 
sured. At a dinner given by Lafayette, in 
Paris, Mrs. Bingham is described as wearing a 
gown " of black velvet with pink satin sleeves 
and stomacher, a pink satin petticoat, and over 
it a skirt of white crape, spotted all over with 
grey fur — the sides of the gown open in front, 
and the bottom of the coat trimmed with paste. 
It was superb and the gracefulness of the person 
made it appear to peculiar advantage." We can 
hardly agree with the last assertion of the writer, 
and studying the beautiful portraits Gilbert 
Stuart made of her, it seems as if such unneces- 
sary adornment were superfluous, her beauty 
being sufficient in itself. The artist eye of Stu- 
art appreciated this when he pictured her once 
in a simply draped gown of shimmering satin 
and faint coloring. In this portrait Stuart has 

170 




ANNK WILLING 
MRS. WILLIAM BINGHAM 

From the Engravitif; after Gilbert Stuart's Portrait 



ANNE WILLING 



given Mrs. Bingham as a background the draped 
curtain he loved so well, and seated her in a 
brocade chair, with one exquisite arm resting 
easily upon a table while the tapering fingers of 
the other hand hold carelessly a little volume 
which might be poems, or is, more likely, her so- 
cial register. 

It was during the first visit abroad made by 
the Binghams that they studied the various types 
of architecture as possible models for the man- 
sion they contemplated building in Philadelphia. 
Mrs. Bingham was so impressed with Manches- 
ter House, London, that she had her plans drawn 
from it, though, in reality, the house she erected 
on Third Street was much grander. In this su- 
perb home Anne Willing shone her brightest, 
though she was also mistress of the beautiful 
country mansion Lansdowne, once the home of 
William Penn. The intimate of America's most 
influential men, the wife of an eminent states- 
man, with youth, beauty, rank and apparently 
boundless wealth at her command, Mrs. William 
Bingham was as unquestionably as she was 
rightly, the leader of American society. 

Her time was divided between her town resi- 
dence, her country seat. New York and Paris, 
though she always admitted a penchant for the 



171 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

latter city, her fondness for the life of the French 
Capital being the subject of a letter to her from 
Thomas Jefferson, written while he was Minister 
to France. 

" To Mrs. Bingham 

" Paris, February 7th, 1787. 
" I know, Madam, that the twelvemonth is 
not yet expired; but it will be, nearly, before 
this will have the honor of being put into your 
hands. You are then engaged to tell me, truly 
and honestly, whether you do not find the tran- 
quil pleasures of America preferable to the 
empty bustle of Paris. For to what does the 
bustle tend? At eleven o'clock it is day, chez 
madame. The curtains are dra\^Ti. Propped on 
bolsters and pillows, and her head scratched into 
a little order, the bulletins of the sick are read 
and the billets of the well. She writes to some 
of her acquaintances, and receives the visits of 
others. If the morning is not very thronged, she 
is able to get out and hobble around the cage of 
the Palais Royal; but she must hobble quickly, 
for the Coiffeur's turn is come; and a tremen- 
dous turn it is! Happy if he does not make her 
arrive when dinner is half over. The torpitude 
of digestion a little passed, she flutters for half 

172 




WILLIAM BINGHAM 



ANNE WILLING 



an hour through the streets, by way of paying 
visits, and then to the spectacles. These finished, 
another half hour is devoted to dodging in and 
out of the doors of her very sincere friends, and 
away to supper. After supper, cards, bed — to 
rise at noon the next day and to tread like a mill 
horse, the same trodden circle over again. Thus 
the days of life are consumed, one by one, with- 
out an object beyond the present moment; ever 
flying from the ennuie of that, yet carrying it 
with us ; eternally in pursuit of happiness, which 
keeps eternally before us. If death or bank- 
ruptcy happen to trip us out of the circle, it is 
matter for the buzz of the evening, and is com- 
pletely forgotten by the next morning. In 
America, on the other hand, the society of your 
husband, the fond cares for the children, the ar- 
rangements of the house, the improvements of 
the grounds, fill every moment with a useful and 
healthy activity. Every exertion is encouraging, 
because to present amusement it joins the prom- 
ise of some future good. The intervals of leisure 
are filled by the society of real friends, whose 
affections are not thinned to cobweb, by being 
spread over a thousand objects. This is the pic- 
ture, in the light it is presented to my mind; 
now let me have it in yours. If we do not con- 

173 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

cur this year, we shall the next; or if not then, 
in a year or two more. You see I am determined 
not to suppose myself mistaken. 

ilj^ ^ y^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

"I shall end where I began, like a Paris day, 
reminding you of your engagement to write me a 
letter of respectable length, an engagement the 
more precious to me, as it has furnished me the 
occasion after presenting my respects to Mr. 
Bingham, of assuring you of the sincerity of 
those sentiments of esteem and respect with 
which I have the honor to be. Dear Madam, your 
most obedient and most humble servant, 

" Th. Jefferson." 

That Jefferson was right in thinking Mrs. 
Bingham too fond of Paris, Mrs. John Adams, 
who first met her abroad, agrees when she writes : 
" I have not seen a lady in England who can 
bear a comparison with ^Irs. Bingham. Amongst 
the most celebrated of their beauties stands the 
Duchess of Devonshire, who is masculine in her 
appearance. Lady Salisbury is small and gen- 
teel, but her complexion is bad : and Lady Talbot 
is not a Mrs. Bingham, who, taken altogether, 
is the finest woman I ever saw. The intelligence 
of her countenance, or rather, I ought to saj^ 

174 



ANNE WILLING 



animation, the elegance of her form, and the af- 
fability of her manners, convert you into ad- 
miration; and one has only to lament too much 
dissipation and frivolity of amusement, which 
have weaned her from her native country, and 
given her a passion and thirst after all the lux- 
uries of Europe." 

In the Bingham drawing-room, whether it 
were at home or abroad, such guests assembled 
as the Jays, JeiFersons, Mateiro, Viscomte de 
Noailles, iTalleyrand, Due de Liancourt, Volney, 
the Hamiltons, Adams, and others of equal re- 
nown. In town and at her beautiful country 
seat, Mrs. Bingham held a court worthy of any 
princess; her life was one unceasing procession 
of joys and pleasures, with never a worldly wish 
ungratified. The queen of social America, as 
well as of her family, Anne Willing was both 
envied and emulated, for the society of two con- 
tinents followed her in everything. Abigail 
Adams wrote of her: " Mrs. Bingham gains my 
love and admiration more every time I see her; 
she is possessed of greater ease and politeness in 
her behaviour than any person I have met." 

The remarkable wit and beauty of the five 
Willing sisters travelled to both England and 
France, and it was while an exile from the lat- 

175 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

— ' 

ter country that Louis Philippe is said to have 
paid ardent court to Elizabeth, who haughtily re- 
fused his offer of marriage and was wedded to 
Major William Jackson, aide-de-camp and pri- 
vate secretary to General Washington. 

Her beautiful portrait by Gilbert Stuart is 
now the property of the Pennsylvania Academy 
of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and is reproduced 
by the kind permission of that institution. 

There is still one more thing to tell of Mrs. 
William Bingham; perhaps it may be termed a 
criticism to admit that she was somewhat spoiled, 
but what petted beauty is not? yet after all, we 
find but one real instance recorded in which she 
proved this to be true, and that was when Wig- 
nell's theatre, the first playhouse in Philadel- 
phia, refused to sell her the exclusive rights to 
one of their boxes. Mrs. Bingham had sub- 
scribed a large sum of money for the privilege 
of practically owning the box, but when this was 
refused, withdrew it, and pouting like a way- 
ward child, was so obstinate as never, or at least 
rarely, to enter the building. 

Whether the cause could be traced to the in- 
cessant whirl in which she lived cannot be said, 
but sadly enough and as suddenly, Anne Bing- 
ham's health failed, and she was ordered at once 

176 




Copj rijilu, 1898, by The Pennsylvania Academy I'f the Fine Arts 

ELIZABETH WILLING 

From the Portrait by Gilbert Stuart 



ANNE WILLING 



to Bermuda, from which island she never re- 
tm-ned. Her family soon found that her days 
were numbered, perhaps that had been pre-or- 
dained, and just twenty-one years after her mar- 
riage. May 11th, 1801, when she counted but 
thirty-seven years, Anne Willing closed her won- 
derful eyes upon the world she had so loved. 

Of aristocratic Colonial ancestry, Mrs. Bing- 
ham did not depend upon mere money for her 
brilliant success. She was a born social leader, 
and under almost any conditions would have 
found her natural sphere. 

William Bingham never recovered from the 
death of his adored wife, though she left 
children to comfort him. Of these, one daughter, 
Matilda, became particularly well known, first, 
as the wife of Comte de Tilly, and later as the 
Hon. Mrs. Henry Baring, her husband being the 
brother of Lord Ashburton, Marquis de Blaisel. 

In the two families of Willing and Bingham, 
Anne Willing shone as the brightest star, and 
in all the years that have passed since she lived, 
her descendants claim their highest honor in shin- 
ing in her reflected light. 



12 /;; 



ABIGAIL ADAMS 

MRS. WILLIAM STEPHENS SMITH 




HE name of Abigail 
Adams is naturally 
closely associated with 
those of her illustrious 
father and mother, who 
devoted themselves so 
assiduously to her 
education, and whose 
prominent characteristics were ably repeated in 
this favored daughter. Born in 1765, the 
mother's quaint Christian name of Abigail was 
given to the little girl whose life never dimmed 
in the slightest the lustre that adorned it when it 
belonged to her gifted parent. If the wedding of 
John Adams, third President of the United 
States, and Abigail Smith, was among the most 
interesting events of the middle eighteenth cen- 
tury, the birth of Abigail second marked another 
page in the social calendar of the country. When 
she was just thirteen, her father was appointed 
joint Commissioner to the French Court, and a 
few years later was sent to London as American 

178 



ABIGAIL ADAMS 



ambassador; so the advantages enjoyed by the 
little girl were far beyond those that came to 
the majority of her contemporaries. A fairy 
godmother seemed ever present to gratify her 
merest whim; she was born the pet of the house- 
hold to become a favorite at the Court of St. 
James. Princesses and ladies, princes and 
lords, were her intimates, yet her heart re- 
mained loyal to America, and she wisely chose 
from a long list of most eligible admirers Colonel 
William Stephens Smith, Secretary of the 
American Legation in England. 

The fortunate bride was twenty-one years of 
age, the groom a bit older, and the wedding was 
solemnized in London at the very height of the 
season, June 12, 1786. It is to be regretted that 
no particular description of this most interesting 
event has been handed down to us; we know, 
though, that the ceremony was performed on 
Sunday, seemingly a curious day, and owe to 
the father of the bride this brief announcement 
which was made to his good friend, John Alsop : 

" Under the sanction of the Archbishop of 
Canterbury and the Bishop of St. Asaph, were 
married Mr. Smith and Miss Adams." 

The position which was made for Abigail 
Adams in English society by her father, was 

179 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

maintained through her husband, and if she ap- 
pears at times to have been a bit spoiled she can 
hardly be blamed. The correspondence between 
her and her mother is preserved in part, and in 
one of her earliest letters pretty little Mrs. Smith 
proves herself a great respecter of her own rights 
when she complains of the Temples. 

" Sir John Temple has taken upon himself 
very singular manners respecting us. It has 
been his constant custom to visit every stranger 
who came to town upon his arrival. Lady Tem- 
ple called upon me at a very late date after we 
arrived, but Sir John has not visited Col. 
Smith, and says to others that he does not know 
in what manner to behave to him because he does 
not know how he took leave; whether it was a 
gracious audience that he met with. I returned 
Lady Temple's visit by a card, without asking 
for her which she complains of. I respect Lady 
Temple, and as it is probable we shall sometimes 
meet at a third place, I wished to be upon civil 
terms with her, particularly as she has often ex- 
pressed a regard for me since she has been here." 

The Temples being of New England birth 
like Mrs. Smith, she seems to have had just cause 
for her irritation at their reception of her in a 
foreign land. Later, however, she speaks of 

180 



ABIGAIL ADAMS 



them in another letter, this time more kindly: 
" Yesterday we dined at Mrs. Jay's in company 
with the corps diplomatique. Mr. Gardoqui was 
as chatty and sociable as his countryman, Del 
Campo, Lady Temple civil, and Sir John more 
of the gentleman than I ever saw him. The 
French minister is a handsome and apparently 
polite man." These time-stained manuscripts 
show very clearly the sort of life led by the 
Smiths, and the distinguished circle in which they 
played a conspicuous part. 

As a married woman, Abigail Adams clung 
to her girlhood friendships, and in her day of 
greatest triumph did not forget the hero-worship 
she, as a child, had given Thomas Jefferson. 
Among the correspondence to which allusion has 
just been made, one may find a letter written 
in 1787 from this great man to the little matron 
he had so often ridden upon his knee. " Mr. 
Jefferson has the honor to present his compli- 
ments to Mrs. Smith and to send her the two 
pair of corsets she desired. He wishes they may 
be suitable, as Mrs. Smith omitted to send her 
measure. Times are altered since Mademoiselle 
de Sanson had the pleasure of knowing her; 
should they be too small, however, she will be so 
good as to lay them by for a while. There are 

181 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

ebbs as well as flows in this world. When the 
mountain refused to come to Mahomet, he went 
to the mountain. Mr. Jefferson wishes Mrs. 
Smith a happy New Year, and abundance of 
happier ones still to follow it. He begs leave to 
assure her of his esteem and respect, and that he 
shall always be happy to be rendered useful to 
her by being charged with her commands." 
"Paris, Jan. 15, 1787." 

Fancy Thomas Jefferson, the astute statesman 
and dignified ambassador, doing such shopping! 

After their return from their brilliant stay 
in England, the Smiths naturally became close 
friends of General and Mrs. Washington, and 
Colonel Smith was one of the Masters of Cere- 
mony at the first Inaugural. The life then led 
by tlie lovely young matron in the American 
capital equalled in brilliancy that she had known 
abroad. The charming " Little Miss Adams " 
had developed into the very delightful " Little 
Mrs. Smith," and it is a curious fact that wher- 
ever she went she seems to have been followed 
by this special adjective. Measuring about five 
feet one, it is not so very remarkable after all. 

There is more than one likeness of Abigail 
Adams left to be judged by a critical public, but 

182 




ABI(;AIK ADAMS 
MRS. WILLIAM STEPHENS SMITH 

From the Portrait by Copley 



ABIGAIL ADAMS 



by far the most pleasing is a copy after a portrait 
by Copley, the original having unfortunately 
been destroyed when the De Windt mansion at 
Fishkill on the Hudson was burned in 1862. In 
this effective portrait Abigail Adams is shown in 
a sitting postvu'e. Her dark gown of heavy, shim- 
mering satin is relieved with a muslin fichu, the 
open neck, together with the huge muff into 
which her arms are thrust, making the costume a 
trifle incongruous. Her eyes are large and lus- 
trous, her brows well defined ; her nose high bred 
and mouth petulant, while her natural hair, which 
undoubtedly was far more beautiful, was sacri- 
ficed to the fashion of the day and entirely hidden 
beneath a heavy, tightly-curled wig, well pow- 
dered and set off across the front with a bandeau 
of pearls. It is a picture unusual in costume and 
expression, and by Copley's greatest admirers 
is considered among his best. 

In November, 1800, Abigail Adams received 
from her mother a letter which contains such an 
interesting description of Washington as it was 
in those days that it is well worth preserving. 
" I arrived here on Sunday last," the letter reads, 
" and without meeting with any accident worth 
noticing, except losing ourselves when we left 
Baltimore, and going eight or nine miles on the 

183 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

Frederic road, by which means we were obliged 
to go the other eight through the woods, where 
we wandered for two hours without finding guide 
or path. . . . But woods are all you see 
from Baltimore till you reach the city, which is 
only so in name. Here and there is a small cot, 
without a glass window, interspersed amongst 
the forests, through which you travel miles with- 
out seeing any human being. In the city there 
are buildings enough, if they were compact and 
finished, to accommodate Congress and those at- 
tached to it; but as they are, and scattered as 
they are, I see no great comfort for them. If 
the twelve years in which this place has been con- 
sidered as the future seat of government had 
been improved as they would have been in New 
England, very many of the present inconven- 
iences would have been removed. It is a beau- 
tiful spot, capable of any improvement, and the 
more I view it the more I am delighted with it." 
Abigail Adams Smith lived at the most inter- 
esting and picturesque period that America will 
ever know. She was successful in her family, 
claiming the unparallelled distinction of being 
the daughter of one President and the sister of 
another. Her life from its very beginning was 
one of roses and sunshine ; happily married, feted 

184 



ABIGAIL ADAMS 



at home and abroad, blessed with beauty of mind 
and feature, Abigail Adams must have found 
all too short the half century of time allotted as 
her portion. But blessed as she was among her 
sister women, the shadows of time, instead of dim- 
ming her memory, have dwelt so kindly with her 
name that it shines for posterity as brightly as 
it did when she queened it right royally at the 
Court of " Lady Washington." 



DOLLY PAYNE 

MRS. JAMES MADISON 



=^AS the career of any 
American woman, Co- 
^ lonial, Revolutionary, 
Wj or of the present era, 
f/ excelled or even equal- 
led in interest that of 
^ Dolly Madison? We 
think not, though only 
the rashest of soothsayers would have been bold 
enough to prophesy the life of brilliant worldli- 
ness which lay before the demure little Quaker 
maiden who came into life so unobtrusively in 
North Carolina on the twentieth day of May, in 
1768. Her Quaker parents, John and ^lary 
Coles Payne, named the babe Dorothea in affec- 
tion for Dorothea Spotswood, and what a satis- 
faction the Colonial dame would have felt had 
she lived to see the great success of her little 
namesake. 

Dolly Madison was a person of many habi- 
tations, and though North Carolina claimed her 
first breath, we are told it was by accident, for 

186 



DOLLY PAYNE 



Mary Coles Payne was a Virginian of Virgin- 
ians, who spent most of her life at Studley, the 
family country seat in Hanover County of 
that State. Perhaps it was her early training 
upon the old plantation, where excitements 
were rare and she was forced to satisfy her 
whims in simple ways, that stood Dolly 
Madison in such good stead in later years when 
sorrows came, and the retirement from public 
life followed upon the heels of its splendor and 
gayety. As a child of that particular period, 
Dolly Payne had no education of which to boast, 
but the little maid was taught other wholesome 
duties, and not one of all her women friends was 
more dainty in needle-craft, more skilled in cook- 
ery and other housewifery art, or more sincerely 
patient in caring for the sick. Old fashioned 
and boring these domestic accomplishments may 
appear to the belle of to-day, but they played a 
great part in the marvellous success of Dolly 
Madison's life. 

It was not until 1783 that the Payne family 
moved to Philadelphia. Dolly was then fifteen 
and as winsome a bit of humanity as eyes would 
care to see; clearly pencilled brows and heavily 
fringed black lashes shaded the deep blue eyes 
which matched the sapphire skies of her birth 

187 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

State and were to become so famous for their 
sparkling, roguish wit. Picture with this a wild- 
rose complexion and black curls that would stray 
bewitchingly from beneath the Quaker bonnet, 
and there is cause for no wonder that the youth 
of the brotherly town lost heads and hearts over 
this little Quakeress who smiled so sweetly 
" Thee " and " Thou." Very often little Doro- 
thea's love of pretty clothes and gayety brought 
upon her severe frowns of disapproval from her 
more rigid sisters, who styled her a " wet 
Quaker," though, in truth, the child never seems 
to have had either the time nor the money to 
gratify her little whims for silver baubles and 
the like. The brightest bits of her youthful days 
were the visits to her Creighton cousins at Had- 
donfield, New Jersey, and though they also be- 
longed to the Society of Friends, life at their 
home was infinitely broader and gayer than any 
the Southern maid had ever known. 

It was from Haddonfield that Dolly went on 
her first real shopping expedition, and it was un- 
der the same broad roof that she fashioned her 
simple trousseau for her marriage to Friend 
John Todd. Whether the young girl loved her 
fiance, or whether she merely acquiesced in the 
marriage in deference to the wish of her father, 

188 



DOLLY PAYNE 



no one can say, but she kept sincerely the prom- 
ises she made that seventh day of January, 1790, 
when she whispered to John Todd so trem- 
blingly, " I, Dorothea Payne, do take thee, John 
Todd, to be my wedded husband, and promise, 
through divine assistance, to be unto thee a lov- 
ing wife until separated by death." 

That Dorothea Todd proved an excellent wife 
and an untiring mother for her one wayward 
son, Payne Todd, all social history agrees; but 
with the inherent gay spirit of some worldly- 
minded grandmother, she soon recovered from 
the shock of her husband's death. Though she 
seems to have mourned sincerely this separation 
just three short years after their marriage, the 
little widow garbed in sad drab paduasoy, with 
her youthful beauty, her matronly independence, 
and store of wit, found a fresh interest in the 
society of men, and it is needless to add, never 
lacked for attention. About this time Aaron 
Burr was counted one of her many admirers, and 
he it was who presented to her the man whose 
life she was so amply to fill, whose ambitions she 
was to assist so materially, and whose regime to 
decorate so marvellously well. 

Yellowed with time and musty with age, a 
letter, upon the face of which is the date 1794, 

189 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

tells to-day's curious world of the excitement 
awakened in the heart of the Quaker widow over 
the fact that she was to meet James Madison: 
" Dear Friend," it reads, " Thou must come to 
me, — Aaron Burr says that the great, little 
Madison has asked to be brought to see me this 
evening." And when he came, this quiet, un- 
flinching man of parts, he readily gave way to 
the call of his heart, admitting the charming 
young widow the one woman of his life, and after 
a brief but no less commanding courtship, the 
whimsical, laughter loving Dolly Todd capitu- 
lated, to become Mrs. James Madison, on the fif- 
teenth day of December, 1794. 

In this second marriage, destined to be so 
great, so happy for her, the pleasure seeking 
nature of Dolly Payne found its only girlhood, 
for her life up to this time had been much too 
sombre and grey. When James Madison be- 
came Secretary of State, ]Mrs. JNIadison proved 
a great help to him, but it was as the wife of the 
fourth President of the United States that she 
won her international fame. Dolly Madison 
possessed that rare combination of gifts and 
graces so necessary in the making of a pre-emi- 
nent social queen; she was "the most popular 
person in the United States " during her hus- 

190 




DOLLY PAYNE 
MRS. JAMES MADISON 

From the Engraving after Gilbert Stuart's Painting 




Ring Presented to Dolly Madison 
by George Washington 



DOLLY PAYNE 



band's administration ; and now, after more than 
one hmidred years, after brilliant and beautiful 
women have lived and reigned and died to be 
forgotten, after many generations have come and 
gone, Dolly Madison seems still to be a beloved 
and living presence. 

In the historic correspondence between Dr. 
Mitchell and his wife, a letter written in Wash- 
ington says of James Madison's bride: "Mrs. 
Madison was Mrs. Todd. She was originally a 
Virginian, and her family were of the Society 
of Friends. She has a fine person and a most 
engaging countenance, which pleases, not so 
much from mere symmetry or complexion as 
from expression. Her smile, her conversation, 
and her manner are so engaging that it is no 
wonder that such a young widow, with her fine 
blue ej^es and large share of animation, should be 
indeed a queen of hearts.'^ 

And Mrs. Seaton, who was so thoroughly fa- 
miliar with the society of her period writes : " I 
would describe the dignified appearance of Mrs. 
Madison, but I can not do her justice. 'Tis not 
her form, 'tis not her face, it is the woman al- 
together whom I should wish you to see. She 
wears a crimson cap that almost hides the fore- 
head but which becomes her extremely, and re- 

191 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

minds one of a crown, from its brilliant appear- 
ance, contrasted with the white satin folds and 
her jet black curls; but her demeanor is so far 
removed from the hauteur generally attending 
on royalty, that your fancy can carry the re- 
semblance no further than her dress. In a con- 
spicuous position every fault is rendered more 
discernible to common eyes and more liable to 
censure; and the same rule certainly enables 
every virtue to shine with more brilliancy than 
when confined to an inferior station in society; 
but I, and I am by no means singular in my 
opinion, believe that Mrs. Madison's conduct 
would be graced by propriety were she placed in 
the most adverse circumstances in life." In the 
later years of Dolly Madison's life she, in every 
way, lived up to Mrs. Seaton's estimate of her 
character. 

As the wife of the President of the United 
States, Mrs. Madison lived in the same open- 
hearted, hospitable way she had always knowTi; 
her life in the country at Montpelier was that of 
the nineteenth century housewife, for whom one 
hundred unexpected guests proved no terror. At 
the White House her bountiful table was her de- 
light and pride, though it appears to have of- 
fended the aesthetic sense of a certain foreign 

192 




DOROTHEA SPOTSWOOD HP:NRY 

For whose Mother Dolly Payne was Named 
From the Portrait by Sharpies 



DOLLY PAYNE 



minister who, in describing the size and abun- 
dance of her dishes, said her dinners were more 
hke harvest home suppers than the entertain- 
ments of the President's wife. 

In Dolly Madison's day, the use of snuff was 
permissible even in the most refined society, and 
hard as it is to believe, the President's wife was 
not above the habit. At a State banquet, she 
presented her beautiful snufF-box to JNIr. Clay 
for a pinch of the contents, and after indulging 
in it herself, applied to her nose a bandanna 
handkerchief, remarking, " Mr. Clay, this is for 
rough work, and this," touching her nose gently 
with a bit of lace, " is my polisher." 

Perhaps Dolly Madison was not great when 
one counts the sterner qualities that combine to 
make heroines, but she was undoubtedly very 
great in her kindly nature, unselfish mind and 
sunny disposition. Tactful, as few women have 
ever been, never forgetting the name of a person 
to whom she had been introduced, or any inci- 
dent connected with anyone she knew, with the 
needed word of encouragement or consolation 
ready upon her lips, and always filled with sin- 
cere sympathy, is it a marvel that Dolly Madi- 
son proved such a factor in IMadison's success? 
At times, heavy thoughts may have burdened her 

13 193 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

vivid mind and unchallenged tears fallen from 
the blue eyes, but the world was never the wiser, 
for she always had for it a bright smile and ap- 
parently light heart, though it was for her hus- 
band that she kept her sunniest self. 

Thick and fast, honors fell to the portion of 
this remarkable woman who always wore them 
gracefully; while she appreciated everything, 
she never overestimated anything, accepting all 
naturally as her due, and throughout the unlim- 
ited adulation she received, her beautiful disposi- 
tion remained unchanged. The little Quaker 
maid developed into fashion's queen butterfly 
and was envied, emulated, admired by all her 
countrj^, as well as courted by those abroad, yet 
her words were as kind for the rich as for the 
poor and she was always the friend of the people. 

During the eight years of her reign in Wash- 
ington, Mrs. Madison counted as her frequent 
visitors the greatest social and political digni- 
taries of England, America and France. At the 
White House, and later at her own residence in 
Washington, her brilliant entertaining was the 
greatest social featiu'e of the time. What a 
pleasure she must have found in allowing full 
play to the gay spirit so cramped for freedom 
in her youth and in giving rein to her love of 

194 



DOLLY PAYNE 



gorgeous raim ent ! For vanity was probably the 
besetting sin of the fair Dolly, and at all State 
functions her toilettes were usually very extrava- 
gant. At the grand ball given in honor of Madi- 
son's inauguration she wore a yellow velvet gown 
enhanced by a huge Parisian turban, then the 
height of fashion, from which floated a bird of 
paradise. Mrs. Madison clung to these turbans 
to the last, and though Mrs. Seaton found them 
becoming to her, we rather think that the black 
curls would have been much more effective. 

In one of her portraits she wears this 
oriental looking head-dress, but it is fortunate 
there are other likenesses of her or the present 
generation would be a trifle disappointed in the 
beauty of this celebrated woman. Unfortu- 
nately, no picture of Mrs. Madison, the Lady 
Presidentess, hangs in the White House gallery, 
but in all of her portraits there is the same sweet, 
cheery expression, though in none of them is 
there the winsomeness of Peale's miniature made 
when she was Dolly Todd, Quaker Lady. 

What a commentary it is, that though her 
girlhood had been passed in the simplest sur- 
roundings, Dolly Madison entered the official 
life of Washington with the greatest ease — 
where, as first lady of the land, she at once be- 

195 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

came the center of a court of rigid etiquette. 
She was a target for small grudges and pique, 
yet passed through the trying ordeal unhurt, 
without incurring enemies or offending any so- 
cial laws. True it is that Dolly Madison has 
place in history as a political power, yet her in- 
fluence was only that which a true, a considerate 
and gracious gentlewoman can always exert over 
those with whom she comes in contact. If it is 
remarkable that she wore so well her official 
honors, it is still more so that, after the brilliancy 
of Washington, Mrs. Madison was no less happy 
when she returned to Montpelier, in Orange 
County, Virginia, after Madison's retirement. 
As gracefully as she had accepted her life of 
fashion, she took up her simple country existence, 
which speaks volumes for her character. The 
majority of women would have felt the change 
and pined for the excitements of the Capital; 
most women would have keenly missed the adula- 
tion that had been hers and rebelled against the 
flatness of the more natural life, but Dolly 
Madison neither mourned nor regretted, pos- 
sessing as she did inner resources which en- 
abled her to make her own life amidst any 
surroundings. 

But Queen Dolly's days were by no means 

196 



DOLLY PAYNE 



free of shadows: her only child, Payne Todd, 
caused her unlimited worry and anxiety; Madi- 
son's health began to fail as he advanced in years, 
and finally, when she lost him, it seemed as if 
the cloud would never lift. During his illness 
her devotion was unfaltering, and from then on 
her life presents a series of troubles and disap- 
pointments. Mrs. Madison's affection for her 
husband was unbounded and her friendship for 
all his acquaintances was so sincere that the two 
w^ere always spoken of together, a most uncom- 
mon thing. The social prominence given her by 
Madison never spoiled her one iota, nor did she 
allow any innovations to change her personal 
or domestic life beyond the requirements of his 
office. " Queen Dolly," was the sobriquet won 
by her for the regal way she presided at state 
affairs, but, underneath, her true womanliness 
and domesticity were ever paramount. Her gra- 
cious tact, her wise silence upon the issues of the 
day, were tremendous assets for the fourth Presi- 
dent, and, as someone has written of Dolly Madi- 
son, " she was brilliant in the things she did not 
say or do." The summit of her ambition was 
to wield a personal influence over her statesman 
husband, for she had no wish to mingle in poli- 
tics, being quite content to fulfil the duties of her 

197 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

own sphere and leave the larger wheel to her 
wise helpmate to whose success she contributed 
so materially by her tireless care and attention, 
her fund of sympathetic understanding and 
sunny nature. 

Historians assert that but for the j)opularity 
of Mrs. Madison, James Madison would never 
have been called to serve a second term in the 
White House. But the wonderful manner in 
which she had weathered the political storm of 
1814, the tactful sway she held over men of va- 
rious minds, the open door and ready smile she 
kept at the President's house for all sorts and 
conditions of thinkers — all combined to throw 
towards her husband the weight of public favor, 
and then, if at no other time, Madison found in 
his wife his real success. 

It is with sincere regret that one turns the page 
of Dolly Madison's life where light-hearted bril- 
liancy is exchanged for trouble and disappoint- 
ment. Pauperized by the dissipation of her son, 
she was forced to sell Montpelier, even Madi- 
son's treasured library, and return to Washing- 
ton to accept the place of a dependent old lady. 
To the very last, however, and her years grew 
to eighty-one, her sunshiny disposition never left 
her, and she went to her grave with a word of 

198 



DOLLY PAYNE 



kindness and encouragement for everyone she 
knew. Among the greatest women of America 
Dolly Madison will always be placed apart as 
being the only woman ever honored with the 
distinction of having been voted a seat in Con- 
gress. Even as an old lady — if one can ever 
think of her as old — her girlish laugh and gentle 
voice swayed some political destinies, and when 
she died in 1849 she left a place and space in 
life that must remain for always unfilled. Surely, 
the name of Dolly Madison belongs not only to, 
but is, the essence of American history, and the 
vast influence she so unostentatiously exercised 
renders her one of the most interesting as well 
as remarkable women of our early days. 

In a corner of the old graveyard at Mont- 
pelier, beside the tomb of her " Great little Madi- 
son," Dolly Madison was laid to rest. Much 
loved and courted in her long life, all that is 
now mortal of her sleeps under a myrtle man- 
tle, and in the spring its clear blue flowers look 
up to heaven, in their soft blue coloring match- 
ing Dolly Madison's eyes. 



MARY JULIA SEYMOUR 



MRS. JOHN CHENEVARD 




^MON.G the beautiful 
collection of Trum- 
bull's miniatures, which 
are accorded such a 
conspicuous place in 
the School of Fine 
Arts at Yale Univers- 
ity, there is one of a 
bewitching, coquettish girl, which at once catches 
the eye to hold the attention. The winsome face 
portrayed so delicately upon the bit of ivory is 
that of Mary Julia Seymour, whose father was 
the Honorable John Seymour, first Mayor of 
Hartford, Connecticut, and whose mother was 
Mary Ledyard. 

Lieutenant-colonel Ledyard, grandfather of 
pretty Mary Julia, or Juliana as the family 
called her, was a distinguished officer of the 
Revolutionary Army, whose death was one of 
the gravest crimes held against the British. 
Being in command of Fort Griswold, Connecti- 
cut, when that stronghold fell into the hands of 

200 



MARY JULIA SEYMOUR 

the English, Colonel Ledyard, as became the offi- 
cer in charge, presented his sword to Captain 
Bloomfield, the redcoat conunander, who, not 
content with this, demanded: "Who commands 
this fort?" 

"I did," returned Colonel Ledyard quietly, 
" but you do now," upon which assurance, the 
brutal Bloomfield plunged the sword into the 
loyal heart of the American officer. 

This was on September 6th, 1781, twelve years 
after little Mary Julia opened her eyes upon a 
happy life, February 6th, 1769. Her mother 
came of illustrious ancestry; her father was not 
only a man of political prominence, but of con- 
siderable wealth, for he came of the great house 
of Seymour which claimed descent from a thir- 
teenth century knight, while his Colonial an- 
cestor was one Richard Seymour, who responded 
to the call of the new country in the year 1640. 
Still farther back of him were the Cliffords, 
Despencers and Mortimers, the Clares and 
Percies; as someone wrote, " a brilliant pageant 
of splendid knights and nobles, of stately ladies, 
of kings and queens." So it would seem that this 
little American descendant was born to enjoy 
the sweets of life to the full. And this she did 
in a care-free manner until the twentieth day 

201 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

of November, 1794, when she was married to 
John Chenevard and assumed, naturally, the re- 
sponsibilities that must always come with that 
estate. 

Two years prior to this event, Jonathan 
Trumbull had painted the miniature which ap- 
peals so wonderfully to us in the old gold frame, 
and from the smiling lips, the coquettish tilt 
of the eyebrows, the flushed cheeks, it does not 
seem at all improbable that the little portrait 
was done for the fortunate man she so soon af- 
terwards married. 

By many this is said to be the most beautiful 
of all of Trumbull's work. He has shown the 
girl of twenty-three years in a simple white 
frock with soft mull kerchief; there is^no touch 
of lace upon gown or fichu, the latter rising in 
an Elizabethan fashion at the back to be tied 
loosely in front, thereby disclosing the soft, 
beautiful throat and bit of neck. The light hair, 
confined by a bandeau of ribbon about the head, 
looks as if it might have been one curling mass 
if left to itself; as it is, it waves low over her 
brow, knowing neither comb nor pin. The oval 
face ends in a pointed, piquant chin, and though 
she is eminently lovely, the little miniature 
shows that she possessed something more, for 

202 




-^ 



MARY JULIA SEYMOUR 

MRS. JOHN chenp:vari) 

From the Miniature by Jonathan Trumbull 



MARY JULIA SEYMOUR 

back of the rather wondering eyes can be seen a 
mind and intellect. 

But life was too fair and rosy for the win- 
some young matron to long enjoy. So many 
who have less to live for linger longer, and Mary 
Julia Chenevard was taken off in her prime; 
for, less than a score of years after she was mar- 
ried, she was carried to her last resting place 
to sleep eternally through centuries of constant 
change. On the nineteenth day of April, in 
1808, Juliana closed her beautiful eyes, leaving 
for New England some romantic memories of 
one of its fairest daughters. (And as one still 
stands in revery before the exquisite face that 
smiles so entrancingly from Trumbull's ivory, 
one can but wonder what this eighteenth cen- 
tury belle would think of the progressive genera- 
tion that, after more than a century, has suc- 
ceeded her. 



MARTHA JEFFERSON 

MRS. THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH 




T has frequently been 
said that the sons of 
great men must always 
suffer the handicap of 
comparison, which, too 
often, falls pitifully 
short of what might 
naturally be expected. 



Consequently, the sonless man of brains and 
ability is to be congratulated, for, no matter how 
many daughters he may have, neither they nor he 
need have cause for dissatisfaction. Yet, curi- 
ously enough, and history proves the right for the 
assertion, more than one daughter of a distin- 
guished father has added lustre to his name, and 
this has been amply proven in the life of Martha 
Jefferson. 

The eldest child of Thomas and Martha 
Wayles Jefferson, Martha Jefferson, was born 
September 25th, 1772, and was very young when 
her beautiful mother died. Perhaps it was this 



MARTHA JEFFERSON 



very fact that served so materially to develop 
her so well, for the little girl was naturally 
thrown much in the company of her father, and 
at an early age became his constant companion 
when he was near. That Jefferson took an in- 
tense interest in the early education of his 
daughter, and that he expected rather difficult 
things of her as a mere child, is shown in old 
family letters which read laughably to us, but 
must have caused tremors of fear in the heart 
of the small scholar who seems to have been left 
no hours for play time. 

In one of these musty parchments, treasured 
so carefully as a whisper from the glorious past, 
he directs: 

" From 8 to 10, practice music. 

From 10 to 1, dance one day and draw 
another. 

From 1 to 2, draw on the day you dance, and 
write a letter next day. 

From 3 to 4, read French. 

From 4 to 5, exercise yourself in music. 

From 5 till bed time, read English, write, etc." 

Added to all this, he states that he expects a 
letter from her by every post, and that she must 
also correspond dutifully with her aunts. Poor 
little Martha! It was a hard schooling, but the 

305 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

wisdom of her illustrious father was proven in 
her after life. 

When Martha reached her fifteenth year, Jef- 
ferson then being American Minister to France, 
she joined him in Paris, where the finishing 
touches were put upon what was already a su- 
perior education, at the Convent at Parthemont; 
the correspondence which took place between 
her and her renowned father at that period is 
more than ordinarily interesting. 

The first glimpse that Martha Jefferson had 
of the great world of society was in Paris, where 
she remained a while after leaving school, under 
the chaperonage of Mrs. John Adams. Here 
she came in contact with the most notable French 
and American women of the time, and Mrs. 
William Bingham, that authorized leader of 
fashion in both countries, shows the American 
girl's success in a letter written to Jefferson 
from New York. "Be so kind as to remember 
me with affection to Miss Jefferson," she writes. 
" Tell her she is the envy of all the young ladies 
in America, and that I should wish nothing so 
much as to place mj^ little girl under her in- 
spection, should she not leave Paris before I re- 
visit it." 

Mrs. Smith, Abigail Adams, while a guest at 

006 




MARTHA JKFFKRSON 
MRS. THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH 

Kroiii the Kngraving afliT Gilbert Stuart's Portrait 



MARTHA JEFFERSON 



the Adams home with Martha Jefferson, wrote 
of her: "Delicacy and sensibility are read in 
her every feature, and her manners are in uni- 
son with all that is amiable and lovely." 

It is gratifjdng to know that this young 
American head was in no wise turned by the 
adulation of the wealth and fashion of Europe, 
for it remained for Thomas Mann Randolph, her 
second cousin, who visited Paris in 1788, to win 
her from titles and old world dignitaries. On 
the 23d of February, 1790, Martha Jeiferson 
became Mrs. Randolph, the wedding uniting 
two of our country's most distinguished families, 
and seldom have two beings started out with a 
more brilliant future before them than these two 
who lived their lives together at " Edge Hill," 
in Albemarle County, Virginia. 

Though Jefferson approved highly of his 
daughter's choice, some biographers would lead 
us to believe that he and Thomas ]Mann Ran- 
dolph were never upon very friendly terms, yet 
history tells us that the second President de- 
scribed his son-in-law as " a man of science, 
sense, virtue and competence." 

In any event, young Randolph was a true 
Virginian, of splendid bearing, good looks and 
broad intellect, possessing the chivalry and 

207 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

bravery of his race, and called by a contempo- 
rary, " A young gentleman of genius, science, 
and honorable mind, who afterwards filled a dig- 
nified station in the general government, and the 
most dignified in his own State." 

When Thomas Jefferson became President, 
it was to Martha Randolph that the arduous du- 
ties of Lady of the White House fell, for all 
of which her noble qualities of head and heart 
well fitted her. Prior to her first visit to the 
Presidential mansion, Mrs. Randolph wrote her 
friend, Dolly Madison, to send her a wig of the 
latest design, adding that it would serve the 
double purpose of making her appear in the 
latest fashion and take away the trouble of ar- 
ranging her own coiffure. So it would seem 
that no age, nor the most intellectual among 
women, is above the craze for puffs and curls 
that may be pinned on rather than grown. 

In 1803, Thomas INIann Randolph was elected 
to Congress, his honor bringing a great pride to 
his wife, but in 1805 she was deeply saddened 
by the loss of her sister, Maria Eppes, and in 
order to help her father bear this great grief, 
spent the entire winter of 1805-1806 at the 
White House, where her second son was born, he 
being the first child of the White House. 

208 



MARTHA JEFFERSON 



When her husband became Governor of Vir- 
ginia, in 1819, Martha Jefferson's cup of happi- 
ness was filled to the brim. Being forced into 
public life through both father and husband, not- 
withstanding the cares of a young family, she 
filled her various positions with a wonderful 
ability, producing a charming impression every- 
where by her manners and conversation. 

It was Mrs. Randolph who was the victim ( ?) 
when Mrs. Merry, wife of the British Minister, 
undertook to be revenged for the fancied indig- 
nities she chose to think the President had heaped 
upon her, and but for the quick wit of the for- 
mer, serious international complications might 
have arisen. As it was, when Mrs. Merry wrote 
Mrs. Randolph begging to know if she were a 
guest at the White House as the daughter of the 
President or the wife of a Virginia gentleman, 
stating that if the first were true, she would call 
upon her, but in the latter case, would expect to 
be called upon, Mrs. Randolph, with ready tact, 
sent an instant reply. She announced that she 
was there as the wife of a Virginia gentleman, 
and, according to JefFersonian etiquette, as visi- 
tors to the Capital should be called upon by resi- 
dents, they would naturally expect the first call. 

Martha Jefferson lived to be the mother of 

14 S09 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

twelve children, the eldest, Thomas JeiFerson 
Randolph, proving the greatest solace to the old 
age of his grandfather. The Sully portrait 
shows her in a bewitching mob cap, and was evi- 
dently done about the time she married, while 
Gilbert Stuart's painting portrays her as the 
young matron of the world with features resem- 
bling somewhat those of Thomas Jefferson, and 
character in every line of her face. 

Mrs. Randolph's daughter relates the follow- 
ing incident in regard to Sully's portrait of her 
mother: " I accompanied her to Mr. Sully's stu- 
dio, and, as she took her seat before him, she 
said playfully : ' Mr. Sully, I shall never forgive 
you if you paint me with wrinkles.' 

" I quickly interrupted, ' Paint her just as she 
is, Mr. Sully, the picture is for me.' 

" He said, ' I shall paint you, Mrs. Randolph, 
as I remember you twenty years ago.' 

" The picture does represent her younger — but 
failed to restore the expression of health and 
cheerful, ever- joyous vivacity which her counte- 
nance then habitually wore. My mother's face 
owed its greatest charm to its expressiveness, 
beaming, as it ever was, with kindness, good hu- 
mor, gayety and wit. She was tall and very 
graceful; her complexion naturally fair, her hair 

210 



MARTHA JEFFERSON 



of a dark chestnut color, very long and very 
abundant. Her manners were uncommonly at- 
tractive from their vivacity, aimiability and high 
breeding, and her conversation was charming." 
Polly Jefferson, Mrs. Eppes, may have been 
the beauty of the family, but Martha, known to 
her father as " Patsy," was blessed with more 
lasting qualities. She was the friend of the rich, 
the comfort of the poor; the associate of the most 
gifted men in Europe and America, yet she was 
most charming of all in her beautiful domesticity, 
and though John Randolph, of Roanoke, had 
quarreled with both her husband and father, 
he rightly summed up her life and character 
when he toasted her as " the noblest woman in 
Virginia." 



REBECCA SMITH 



MRS. SAMUEL BLODGET 




URING the Centennial 
Exposition held in 
Philadelphia in 1876, a 
distinguished looking 
man of foreign appear- 
ance paused frequently 
before an unfinished 
portrait which graced 
the walls of the Art Gallery. No matter where 
he might have been called upon to go, or how 
many and elaborate the festivities planned in his 
honor, the foreigner always found time to pay a 
daily visit to his ideal portrait upon which his fine, 
dark eyes rested long and admiringly. This 
gentleman was none other than the Empcirer of 
Brazil, while the picture which so charmed and 
haunted him was of Mrs. Samuel Blodget, born 
Rebecca Smith, whose handsome, saucy face still 
shines radiantly upon a canvas by Gilbert 
Stuart. 

The daughter of the Reverend William Smith, 
D.D., first Provost of the University of Penn- 

212 



REBECCA SMITH 



sylvania, and a man as able as he was good, Re- 
becca was born on the ninth of March, in 1772. 
Blessed with a naturally quick, receptive mind, 
the little girl developed into a woman of such 
superior mentality that even her beauty became 
secondary in comparison. But as is generally 
true of women of her type. Mistress Rebecca pos- 
sessed a tongue which paid constant court to the 
god of mt regardless of the bitterness she might 
plant in the hearts of others against her sarcas- 
tic sallies. 

Naturally her conversation was as original as 
it was amusing, for she never hesitated to express 
with alarming freedom her opinion of things and 
people. 

Though the devotion which existed between 
her and her father was as sincere as they were 
congenial, even her white-haired sire was fre- 
quently made her victim. It is said that old 
Doctor Smith held the opinion of his lively daugh- 
ter in great esteem, and whenever he was called 
to make any address of importance, insisted that 
she be present. Upon one of these momentous 
occasions, when he was to deliver an oration 
on Benjamin Franklin before the American 
Philosophical Society, Doctor Smith made sure 
that the fair Rebecca was among his audience. 

213 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

Returning home after his speech, he was treated 
to an ecstatic embrace from the beautiful girl, 
in return for which he questioned her smilingly 
upon the manner of his reception. 

" Well, my daughter," he announced with 
pleasure, " I saw you seated among the magnates 
at the church. You heard me, I suppose? " 

" Oh, yes," was her non-committal rejoinder, 
" I was there and heard every word." 

" And how did you like the eulogy, let me 
ask? " persisted the doctor. 

" Oh, Papa," admitted Rebecca with an arch 
look, "it was beautiful indeed; only — Papa — 
only — only 

"Only what?" demanded the learned man, 
with interest. 

" Only — Papa — now you won't be offended, 
will you? " she begged — " I don't think you be- 
lieved more than one-tenth part of what you said 
of old Ben Lightning-rod; did you? " 

The reverend doctor was perhaps as much 
shocked at the manner in which she spoke of the 
august Franklin as at her accusation of his in- 
sincerity, but he merely gave his pretty daughter 
a pinch on the cheek and wisely pressed her no 
further upon the subject. 

It was fear of her ridicule which followed Re- 

214 



REBECCA SMITH 



becca Smith through life. First in the school- 
room, afterwards in Republican salons, her per- 
sonal opinion was held in high regard, few being 
willing to run the gamut of her biting wit, to 
which she sacrificed friends as well as enemies. 

Her own children she mockingly described as 
having " small eyes like Mr. Blodget, which 
gives them a comical look," and when she ad- 
mitted that one was a beauty she could not re- 
frain from adding that the same little girl was 
a vixen — not to be wondered at with Rebecca 
Blodget for her mother. 

At the height of her glory, this beautiful Re- 
becca, then aged twenty, was married to Samuel 
Blodget, May 10th, 1792. Her husband, a born 
New Englander from Woburn, Massachusetts, 
fought bravely in the Revolutionary Army, and 
when peace was declared sailed for Europe, 
where he studied the ancient cities as models for 
those to be made in the new country. Return- 
ing to America two years before his marriage, 
Mr. Blodget became very active in the landscape 
architecture of Washington, to which place he 
later took his beautiful bride, who at once became 
a personage in official society. For a time 
Samuel Blodget was superintendent of the city 
towards which all American eyes were then 

215 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

turned. He was a firm believer in the success 
of the new Capital, and accordingly invested 
heavily in building lots; at the same time, he 
came in for some severe criticisms owing to a 
plan he had formulated to establish a lottery for 
the furtherance of the sale of real estate. To- 
day his idea would have been counted clever, but 
in the early nineteenth century the code of men 
and morals was not so far advanced. 

That Mrs. Blodget was unquestionably a beau- 
tiful woman, the picture so openly admired by 
the distinguished South American lives to prove. 
Her beautiful portrait by Gilbert Stuart is now 
the property of The Pennsylvania Academy of 
the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and is reproduced 
by the kind permission of that institution. There 
is neither drapery nor other background to en- 
hance the head, which in its queenly poise holds 
the admiration of all so happy as to see it. Just 
why it was never finished cannot be said ; perhaps 
the trained eye of the artist thought it unneces- 
sary; mayhap, the time allotted to its painting 
was too limited; these, and numerous other rea- 
sons may be brought forward, but whatever may 
have been the cause, the portrait is as sincerely 
commended as if it had been completed to the 
minutest detail. 

216 



REBECCA SMITH 



In a biography of Doctor Smith, the fair 
Rebecca is thus described: "This daughter, of 
whom a lovely portrait by Gilbert Stuart attests 
the justice of the social judgment, was one of 
the most admired beauties that ever adorned the 
drawing-rooms of Philadelphia, and as much dis- 
tinguished by sprightliness and wit as by her per- 
sonal comeliness. The portrait of her by Stuart 
has been universally acknowledged, I think, to 
be the finest female head that Stuart produced. 
Boston has good works of this kind, I know, but 
they are in Stuart's later style. That of the ladj^ 
has a purity, an ethereal charm, which his pencil 
lost some time after the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century. As a general thing, Stuart's 
women were not successful. It seemed as if he 
required a male head, and one moreover, of a 
high intellectual order, like that of the father. 
Dr. Smith, whom he painted." 

Rebecca Blodget came of a race of lovely 
women; her cousin was beautiful Frances Cad- 
walader, the Lady Erskine of social history, 
while her grandmother was that Williamina 
Moore, of Moore Hall, Pennsylvania, who has 
given to America more beautiful descendants 
than any one Colonial ancestress. 

Rebecca Smith, Colonial, Revolutionary and 

217 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

Republican belle, left vacant her enviable place 
in the world at the age of sixty-five. Her hus- 
band had died in 1814, and for twenty-three 
years she had lived a widow. Perhaps the last 
days of her life were not so roseate ; perhaps the 
trials and griefs which must ever fall to the por- 
tion of all, had dulled somewhat her arrow-tipped 
wit and lined her face of aristocratic beauty. 
The influence of her life can now only vaguely 
be viewed, but where it is seen, it places her 
amongst the women who have affected genera- 
tions beyond their own, and who seem to exist 
in the present as forcibly as they lived in the 
past. 




Copyrig^ht, 1898. by The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 



rebp:cca smith 
mrs. samuel blodget 

Bv Gilbert Stuart 



SALLY McKEAN 

MARQUISE D'YRUJO 




pMONG the galaxy of 
beauties that shone so 
brilliantly in Philadel- 
phia just after the 
Revolution, none tpok 
precedence of Sally 
McKean, who, by rea- 
son of her personal 
charms, aristocratic birth and mental gifts, 
queened it in a little court of her own. 

Born in Newark, Delaware, July 8th, 1777, 
Sarah Maria Theresa McKean, was the daughter 
of Governor Thomas McKean and his second 
wife, Sarah Armitage. As the child of a man 
who held such prominent offices as those of Chief 
Justice and Governor of Pennsylvania, Sally 
McKean would naturally have assumed a con- 
spicuous role in Philadelphia society, though her 
physical beauties and mental accomplishments 
would have guaranteed her that had she been 
born in a humbler sphere. As a little girl, she 
led the sheltered life of all children of her posi- 

219 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

tion, passing from the nursery to the hands of 
governesses and not being allowed many glimpses 
of the gay world until she had reached her sev- 
enteenth year, when she was launched into the 
merry life of the Capital, to at once become a 
leading factor. 

In describing a very grand dinner given by 
President Washington in 1791, an old writer 
gives us a glimpse of Mistress Sally at the age 
of nineteen: "Among the first to arrive was 
Chief Justice McKean, accompanied by his lovely 
daughter, Miss Sally McKean. Miss McKean 
had many admirers, but her heart was still her 
own. She wore a blue satin dress trimmed witli 
white crape and flowers, and petticoat of white 
crape richly embroidered, and across the front a 
festoon of rose color caught up with flowers." 

It was at this dinner, so memorable in the 
lives of at least two of the guests, that Sally Mc- 
Kean met the man she was so soon to marry, the 
Marquis d'Yrujo, who is also spoken of in the 
afore-mentioned letter. " The next to arrive was 
senor Don Carlos Martinez de Yrujo, stranger 
to almost all the guests. He spoke with ease but 
with a foreign accent, and was soon lost in amaze- 
ment at the beauty and grace of Miss McKean." 
The Marquis d'Yrujo was born in Cartagena, 

220 




SALLY McKEAN 
MARCHIONESS D'YRUJO 

From the Portrait by Gilbert Stuart 



SALLY McKEAN 



Spain, December 4th, 1763, and on June 4th, 
1791, arrived in America as minister from that 
country. 

From this first meeting, the young Spaniard 
was all devotion to the beautiful American girl, 
who received his attentions as she did those of 
innumerable other admirers, and it was not un- 
til two years later that he was rewarded. Old 
family papers, faded and yellow, tell of this 
marriage, which took place April 10th, 1798. 
The bride, with her black hair and soft dark eyes, 
appeared much more Spanish than her husband, 
who was light-haired and blue-eyed. The INIar- 
quis was then thirty-five, nearly twice the age of 
his wife, and President Washington has left a 
brief description of him: " M. dYrujo spent two 
days with me and is just gone. He is a young 
man, very agreeable and easy in his manners, pro- 
fesses to be well disposed towards the United 
States, and as far as a judgement can be formed 
on so slight an acquaintance, appears to be well 
informed." 

One of the greatest favorites of Mrs. Wash- 
ington, the young Marquise naturally spent much 
time at the American Court, and thus describes 
the first reception of the Lady Presidentess : 

" You never could have such a drawing- 

221 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

room; it was brilliant beyond anything you can 
imagine; and though there was a great deal of 
extravagance, there was so much of Philadelphia 
taste in everything that it must be confessed the 
most delightful occasion of the kind ever known 
in this country." A piquant note of provincial 
narrowness appears in this letter, when the young 
girl speaks of Philadelphia as comparable with 
the whole world. 

After their marriage, honors were heaped 
upon this young couple; in 1803, Don Carlos 
Martinez was created Marquis de Casa Yhrujo; 
in 1810 he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary 
and Minister Plenipotentiary at Rio Janeiro. 
It was three years later, in 1813, that Governor 
McKean, in writing to Mr. Adams, said, " The 
Marquis de Casa Yrujo with my daughter and 
their children and servants made me a visit on 
his return from an embassy to the Prince Regent 
of Portugal in Rio Janeiro in Brazil." About 
this time, the Marquis is described as : " Proud 
as a typical Spaniard should be, and mingling 
an infusion of vanity with his pride; irascible, 
head strong, indiscreet as was possible for a dip- 
lomatist, and afraid of no prince or president; 
young, able, quick and aggressive, devoted to 
his king and country; a flighty and dangerous 




THE MARQUIS D'YRUJO 

From the Portrait by Gilbert Stuart 



SALLY McKEAN 



friend, but a most troublesome enemy; always 
in difficulties, but in spite of fantastic outbursts 
always respectable." It would seem from this 
that the fair Sally had her small hands over-full 
in the management of such a husband, yet, from 
all accounts, the union proved happy in every 
way. There must have been times when the 
youthful matron's patience was taxed, when her 
temper was tried, but if that be true, they have 
wisely been forgotten, and all that family his- 
tory tells us of them is of the rosy hue. 

From first to last, according to social annals, 
Sally McKean lived a life flooded with sunshine. 
Destined always to be in the public eye, gracing 
from her girlhood positions of distinction, as 
the Philadelphia beauty and the wife of a Span- 
ish grandee, the friend of Presidents and most 
noted men and women of the day, she never over- 
estimated her position, but was always the gra- 
cious hostess, agreeable acquaintance and loyal 
wife as well as truest friend. 



ELIZA CUSTIS 



MRS. THOMAS LAW 



N the Eastern Shore of 
Virginia there is a tomb 
of more than passing 
interest to native and 
stranger ahke ; upon this 
marble slab, which was 
once of a snowy white- 
ness, a very remarkable 
inscription is engraved in accordance with the 
directions of the person in whose memory it was 
placed. 




" Under this marble tomb lies the body 

Of the Hon. John Custis Esq., 

Of the city of Williamsburg, 

and parish of Bruton. 

Formerly of Himgar's Parish, on the 

Eastern Shore 

Of Virginia, and County of Northampton, 

Aged 71 years, and yet lived but seven years, 

which was the space of time he kept 

a Bachelor's home at Arlington, 

on the Eastern Shore of Virginia." 

234 



ELIZA CUSTIS 



Upon the op230site side of the marble, the 
reader is enlightened as to this curious epitaph: 

" This inscription put on his tomb was by 
His own positive orders." 

That the matrimonial sea upon which the 
Honorable John Custis embarked was much too 
billowy is very evident, nor does one wonder 
after scanning briefly the life his partner led. 
In the early part of the eighteenth century, John 
Custis laid siege to the heart of Frances Parke, 
the imperious daughter of Colonel Daniel Parke, 
aide-de-camp to the Duke of Marlborough. 
Though he was forewarned of her fiery temper 
and ungovernable ways, the ardent suitor saw 
naught in her but perfection, and in 1705 indited 
the following sentimental epistle to her: 

" Williamsburg^ February 4, 1705. 
" May angels guard my dearest Fidelia and 
deliver her safe to my arms at our next meeting; 
and sure they wont refuse their protection to a 
creature so pure and charming, that it would be 
easy for them to mistake her for one of them- 
selves. If you could but believe how entirely 
you possess the empire of my heart, you would 
easily credit me when I tell you, that I can 

15 225 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

neither think nor so much as dream of any other 
subject than the enchanting Fidelia. You will 
do me wrong if you suspect that there ever was 
a man created that loved with more tenderness 
and sincerity than I do, and I should do you 
wrong if I could imagine there ever was a nymph 
that deserved it better than you. Take this for 
granted, then fancy how uneasy I am like to be 
under the unhappiness of your absence. Figure 
to yourself what tumults there will arise in my 
blood, what a fluttering of the spirits, what a 
disorder of the pulse, what passionate wishes, 
what absence of thought, and what crowding of 
sighs, and then imagine how unfit I shall be for 
business; but returning to the dear cause of my 
uneasiness ; O the torture of six months' expecta- 
tion! If it must be so long and necessity will 
till then interpose betwixt you and my inclina- 
tion I must submit, though it be as unwillingly 
as pride submits to superior virtue, or envy to 
superior success. Pray think of me, and believe 
that Veramour is entirely and eternally yours. 

" Adieu." 

That the " Enchanting Fidelia " proved a 
headstrong virago, the old tomb tells; and that 
the trials of the unhappy husband must indeed 

226 



ELIZA CUSTIS 



have been heavy to have made him forget the 
sentiment that surrounded his early attachment, 
we readily appreciate. Though, when all is said, 
it seems rather curious that he should have been 
willing to give to the public of succeeding cen- 
turies the unhappy domestic history of his life. 
But Frances Parke was very beautiful if much 
too haughty, and left to the children who were 
born of this union much that was to be desired. 

Three generations passed before the ungovern- 
able ways of the eighteenth century beauty as- 
serted themselves in her descendants, but in the 
life of Eliza Custis, her great-granddaughter, 
there is much to remind one of her. 

Eliza Custis, one of the children to fall under 
the happy guardianship of President and Mrs. 
Washington, possessed a wonderful brunette 
beauty that made her the admired of all artists, 
and which is reproduced by Gilbert Stuart as 
his finest portrait. 

When the latter was making one of his like- 
nesses of Washington, he was struck i^ath the 
loveliness of this step-granddaughter of Mount 
Vernon, and catching her one day in an attitude 
which appealed to him as expressive of the young 
girl's character, asked leave to paint her in this 
pose ; permission granted, he at once set to work 

227 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

with the happy result the old portrait shows. She 
stands with arms closely folded in a somewhat 
defiant attitude and, back of her, from a misty 
background, one lone tree stands forth. Her fig- 
ure is plump and perhaps half length, while the 
most impressive thing about the picture is the 
absolute unconsciousness of the subject. She 
wears a dark silk gown with close fitting short 
sleeves, and relieved about the low-cut Heck with 
a heavily fringed scarf of white silk net. The 
neck is beautiful ; the flesh tints those that Stuart 
knew how to paint; the hair is very dark and 
waves a little as it falls carelessly about her neck 
and down low over her right brow which is raised 
a bit imperiously above the superb black eyes. 
Her nose is faultless, and though the lips are a 
trifle thin, they are well curved and show a de- 
termination which ofl'sets the suggested dimple 
in her chin. Altogether, the portrait is radiant. 

Eliza Custis was very beautiful, there is no 
denying that, though her haughty features may 
have made her of a forbidding type. John Adams 
spoke of her as, " A fine, blooming, rosy girl," 
and as such she undoubtedly appealed to Mr. 
Thomas Law, who met her in Philadelphia, where 
she was a guest of the Washingtons. 

As the nephew of Lord Ellenborough, Chief 

228 




From " Salons Colonial and Republican," 1>> V 



ELIZA PARKE CUSTIS 
MRS, THOMAS LAW 

From the Portrait by Gilbert Stuart 




Eliza Custis' Snutfbox 



ELIZA CUSTIS 



Justice of the King's Bench, Thomas Law would 
naturally have attracted attention; add to this 
the fact that he was enormously wealthy as well 
as exceedingly good to look at, and it is not 
difficult to understand how the nineteen-year-old 
beauty was swept off her feet by the adoration 
of this most desirable suitor twice her age. Then, 
too, the flavor of romance hung over the early 
years of the high-born Englishman who lived 
then mostly in India, where, in that weird, 
oriental atmosphere, he tasted much of life that is 
denied the less travelled man. It was while he 
was in India that he and Lord Cornwallis became 
great friends; but, notwithstanding the warmest 
personal regard he entertained for the latter, 
when America sounded her warcry against 
Great Britain Thomas Law came to this coun- 
try, having been drawn thither by the hero- 
worship that was inspired in his heart for oin* 
Commander-in-Chief. But if there was much to 
be said for, there were also things to be said 
against Mr. Law, and a contemporary Washing- 
tonian, in speaking of him, said, that there was 
scarcely an acquaintance of this very erratic gen- 
tleman who could not relate some interesting 
anecdote of his eccentricities. 

Being pleasing in the eyes of the arrogant 

229 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

young woman, and there seeming none but rea- 
sons why the alliance should occur, Eliza Custis 
became Mrs. Thomas Law at " Hope Park," the 
country seat of her Stuart relatives in Fairfax 
County, Virginia, just what day we do not know. 
George Washington, whose worldly wisdom 
was well worth heeding, sent his capricious god- 
daughter some pertinent advice upon the subject 
of her marriage. From Germantown, this inter- 
esting letter was written September the four- 
teenth, 1794, and we who know the outcome of 
the affair can hardly help smiling as we fol- 
low the faded words: "Do not then in your 
contemplation of the marriage state look for per- 
fect felicity, before you consent to wed; nor con- 
ceive from the fine tales of the poets, and lovers of 
old of the transports of mutual love, that heaven 
has taken its abode on earth; — nor do not de- 
ceive yourself in supposing that the only means 
by which these are to be obtained, is to drink 
deep of the cup, and revel in an ocean of love. 
Love is a mighty pretty thing, but like other 
delicious things, it is cloying; and when the first 
transport of the passion begins to subside, which 
it assuredly will do, and yield — oftentimes too 
late — to more sober reflections, it serves to evince 
that love is too dainty a food to live upon alone, 

230 



ELIZA CUSTIS 



and ought not to be considered further than as 
a necessary ingredient for that matrimonial hap- 
piness which results from a combination of 
causes." 

As Thomas Law was a man of wealth and one 
of the earliest residents of Washington city, 
where he erected a magnificent home upon the 
banks of the Potomac, and as Mrs. Law was both 
granddaughter and ward of Lady Washington, 
with beauty and determination, no couple were 
more conspicuous in the social life of the Capital. 
At their house were gathered together such 
notables as Volney, Neimcewicz, Kosciusko, 
Louis Philippe, and Richard Parkinson, besides 
eminent Americans of the early Republic. 

That Eliza Custis lived in a very extravagant 
style, many old manuscripts exist to attest; her 
chariot was said to be handsomer than any ever 
seen in this country ; her drawing-rooms were fa- 
mous, her acquaintances all from the haut monde. 
And yet, though Washington had seen the hap- 
piest of futures for her but a few years before, in 
a very short time the haughty self-willed beauty 
found life unbearable with a husband twice her 
age. At the age of nineteen she had married 
Thomas Law, who was forty; superficially, they 
may have been congenial, but beneath this veneer, 

231 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

neither understood the other ; the sad part is that 
neither seem to try very hard. 

It is rather curious that Thomas Law should 
have voiced much the same matrimonial senti- 
ments as did the Honorable John Custis, though 
those of the former were expressed a bit more 
poetically. 

" Look not in public places for a wife ; 

Be not deluded by the charms of sight. 
Retirement only gives the friend for life 

Who shares your grief and doubles your dehght." 

Law was handsome, intellectual, and the pos- 
sessor of vast estates, enough to turn the head of 
a miss of eighteen, but he was also eccentric to 
a trying degree, and though the luxuries and 
pleasures with which he surrounded his wife were 
at first sufficient to make her happy or at least 
contented, Eliza Custis soon woke to the fact that 
she was wretched, and with the inherited stub- 
bornness of her great-grandmother, refused to 
listen to outside intervention and not only left 
her husband, but resumed her maiden name. Her 
life, from many sources, was filled with trouble, 
through all of which she was ever loyal in her 
devotion to the Washingtons and always grew 
angry at the merest suggestion that they were 
anything short of perfection. 



ELIZA CUSTIS 



Upon one occasion, when Gilbert Stuart's 
daughter was criticising his portrait of George 
Washington as flattering, Eliza Custis exclaimed 
indignantly: "Too fair! My dear, his neck is 
as fair as that of a girl of seventeen." 

The intense interest which Thomas Law had 
in General Washington was said to be the cause 
of his coming to America, and though it was 
through the man who had impressed him as the 
ideal soldier and statesman, that his unfortunate 
domestic troubles were brought about, his ad- 
miration did not cease, but he was, on the con- 
trary, always counted as a staunch friend of the 
first President. 

The last years of Eliza Custis are more or less 
enveloped in a veil of uncertainty, and perhaps 
it is just as well, for one likes to remember the 
beauty when she was at her best surrounded by 
all the luxuries that wealth could give. She 
was not so winsome as her sister Nellie, nor 
should she be blamed for her wilful temper, but 
rather admired for her frank honesty; she showed 
what she felt when less sincere women would 
have hidden their feelings, and when one turns 
the last page in her history, it is with a twinge 
of pity and not the least of blame. 



ELEANOR PARKE CUSTIS 

MRS. LAWRENCE LEWIS 




OT far from the north 
shore of the Potomac 
River, perhaps one 
hour's sail from Wash- 
ington, stands an old 
brick mansion, strongly 
built and well pre- 
served. Towards the 
entrance drive the hill slopes precipitously, while 
the plateau on the opposite side is claimed by a 
quaint flower garden where boxwood hedges and 
old fashioned blossoms are shaded from the sun 
by venerable oaks and sycamores. This is Wood- 
lawn, the home of Nellie Custis, erected under 
her direction and her bridal gift from George 
Washington. 

Standing out from the vivid background of 
the early nineteenth century the name and mem- 
ory of this American girl must always live, allied 
as it is with that of Washington, whose step- 
daughter and ward she was. This daughter of 
John Parke and Eleanor Calvert Custis was 

234 



ELEANOR PARKE CUSTIS 

born on the twenty-eighth day of March, 1779, 
at Abingdon-on-the-Potomac. Martha Wash- 
ington was her grandmother on the paternal 
side, while through her mother there flowed in 
her the blood of Leonard Calvert, Sixth Lord 
Baltimore. 

Nellie Custis, as the child was always called, 
was but five when JNIount Vernon became her 
home, and the place that was accorded her there 
is shown by an order sent by Washington to 
England for : " Miss Custis, six years old. A coat 
of fashionable silk; a fashionable cap or fillet, 
with a bib apron; ruffles and tucker to be laced; 
four fashionable dresses to be made of long lawn ; 
two fine cambrick frocks; a satin capuchin hat 
and neckatees; a Parisian quilted coat; one pair 
pack-thread stays; four pairs callimanco and six 
pairs leather shoes; two pairs satin shoes with 
flat ties; six pairs fine cotton and four pairs 
white worsted stockings; twelve pairs mits and 
six pairs white kid gloves; one pair silver shoe 
buckles; one pair neat sleeve buttons." 

In the kindly, home-like atmosphere, the child 
developed into a woman of rare beauty as well as 
of a brilliant mind. Nor is it remarkable that, 
claiming such a man as George Washington as 
the playmate of her babyhood and confidant 

235 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

of her girlhood, her womanhood should have 
proven worthy of an enviable page in the book 
of American social history. 

Though George Washington was esteemed by 
many as austere and unapproachable, there was 
seldom a time that the winsome Nellie could not 
force from him a smile. It was necessary for 
her to stand on tiptoe in order to whisper into 
his ear, and holding affectionately to the button 
of his coat, she in this way poured out to him 
the little joys and tragedies of her young life. 
Sometimes it was to coax him into allowing her 
to go to a ball, or again it was to blushingly con- 
fide some little romance, but most often it was 
to beg for a new gown or gay ribbon, and of these 
requests there was never a refusal.. 

Washington Irving (at least the anecdote is 
accredited to him) illustrates very aptly the re- 
lationship that existed between Nellie Custis and 
her grandparents. " She was romantic," the 
paragraph reads, " and fond of wandering in 
the moonlight alone in the woods. Mrs. Wash- 
ington thought this unsafe, and forced from her 
a promise that she would not visit the woods 
again unaccompanied, but she was brought one 
evening into the drawing-room where her grand- 
mother, seated in her arm-chair, began, in the 

336 



ELEANOR PARKE CUSTIS 

presence of the General, a severe reproof. Poor 
Nellie was reminded of her promise and taxed 
with her delinquency. She admitted her fault 
and essayed no excuse, moving to retire from 
the room. She was just closing the door when 
she overheard Washington attempting in a low 
voice to intercede in her behalf. ' My dear,' he 
observed, ' I would say no more — perhaps she 
was not alone.' His intercession stopped Miss 
Nellie in her retreat. She re-opened the door 
and advanced up to the General with a firm step. 
* Sir,' said she, ' you brought me up to speak the 
truth, and when I told Grandmama I was alone, 
I hope you will believe I was alone.' Washing- 
ton made one of his most magnanimous bows, 
' My child,' he replied, ' I beg your pardon.' '* 

That her guardian was not only interested in 
Nellie's first ball, but that he was rather fearful 
of what it might lead up to, the letter he wrote 
her upon that great occasion would lead us to be- 
lieve, for he warns her: "When the fire is be- 
ginning to kindle and your heart growing warm, 
propound these questions to it: Who is this in- 
vader? Have I a competent knowledge of him? 
Is he a man of good character — a man of sense? 
For, be assured, a sensible woman can never be 
happy with a fool. What has been his walk in 

23:7 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

life? Is he a gambler, a spendthrift, a drunkard? 
Is his fortune sufficient to maintain me in the 
manner I have been accustomed to live? " 

A strict disciplinarian in certain things, Mrs. 
Washington always required the members of her 
household to follow the good example of the 
General and dress for their three o'clock dinner. 
Upon one occasion, Nellie Custis and her cousin, 
Martha Dandridge, who had been amusing them- 
selves up to the hour for dining, appeared at the 
table in their morning gowns, and though Mrs. 
Washington might have looked her displeasure, 
she made no comment until a coach containing 
some French officers of high rank and young 
Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, was seen ap- 
proaching. In a flutter of excitement, the two 
girls begged to be excused in order that they 
might dress, but Mrs. Washington shook her 
head, saying, " No, remain as you are, what is 
good enough for General Washington is good 
enough for any guest of his." So the young 
women were forced to pocket their pride and re- 
ceive the distinguished callers just as they were. 
One historian is cruel enough to say that their 
hair, instead of being dressed as it should have 
been, was adorned with curl papers, a death-blow 
to romance. In any event, the fair Nellie must 




NELLIE CUSTIS 

At the age of 16 

From the Pastel by Sharpies 




Book-mark of NelUe Custis 



ELEANOR PARKE CUSTIS 

have suffered keenly, since young Carroll was 
one of her most devoted swains, and it was in 
regard to this very visit that George Washing- 
ton Parke Custis, the brother of Nellie, wrote 

from Annapolis: " I find that young Mr. C 

has been at Mount Vernon, and, report says, to 
address my sister. It may be well to subjoin an 
opinion which, I believe, is general in this place, 
viz., that he is a young man of the strictest 
probity and morals, discreet without closeness, 
temperate without excess, and modest without 
vanity; possessed of those amiable qualities and 
friendship which are so commendable, and with 
few of the vices of the age. In short, I think it 
a most desirable match, and wish that it may 
take place with all my heart." Washington, who 
favored the suit of his nephew, put an end to 
Nellie's brother's hopes by a curt response: 

" Young Mr. C came here about a fortnight 

ago to dinner," he wrote, " and left us next morn- 
ing after breakfast. If his object was such as 
you say has been reported, it was not declared 
here ; and therefore the less is said upon the sub- 
ject, particularly by your sister's friends, the 
more prudent it will be until the subject devel- 
ops itself more." 

The very prominent position of the Washing- 

239 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

tons naturally afforded Nellie Custis untold so- 
cial advantages, and at an early age she became 
accumtomed to the flattery and devotion of the 
most notable men of the time. But George 
Washington, in his worldly knowledge, never al- 
lowed her to overestimate such attentions, and 
in a letter written her the day Eliza Custis be- 
came Mrs. Thomas Law, counsels her wisely. 
" A woman (the same may be said of the other 
sex) all beautiful and accomplished, will, while 
her hands and heart are undisposed of, turn the 
heads and set the circle in which she moves on 
fire. Let her marry, and what is the consequence. 
The madness ceases and all is quiet again. 
Why? Not because there is any diminution in 
the charms of the lady, but because there is an 
end of hope. Hence it follows, that love may 
and therefore ought to be under the guidance 
of reason, for although we can not avoid first 
impressions, we may assuredly place them under 
guard; and my motives for treating on this sub- 
ject are to show you, while you remain Eleanor 
Parke Custis, spinster, and retain the resolution 
to love with moderation, the propriety of adher- 
ing to the latter resolution, at least until you 
have secured your game, and the way by which 
it may be accomplished. 

240 



ELEANOR PARKE CUSTIS 

" The declaration, without the most indirect 
invitation of yours, must proceed from the man, 
to render it permanent and vakiable, and noth- 
ing short of good sense and an easy unaffected 
conduct can draw the Hne between prudery and 
coquetry. It would be no great departure from 
truth to say, that it rarely happened otherwise 
than that a thorough-paced coquette dies in 
celibacy, as a punishment for her attempts to mis- 
lead others by encouraging looks, words, or ac- 
tions, given for no other purpose than to draw 
men on to make overtures that they may be 
rejected." 

One of the most interesting and attractive fig- 
ures of the White House during the first Presi- 
dent's regime, it is rather remarkable that Nellie 
Custis contentedly returned to a quiet life in the 
country after the completion of Washington's 
second term, and writing from Mount Vernon 
to a friend in town she says : " We arrived here 
on Wednesday without any accident after a te- 
dious journey of seven days. Grandpapa is very 
wefl and much pleased with being once more 
Farmer Washington." 

Always regarded as one of the loveliest young 
women of her time, Eleanor Parke Custis was in 
every way the pride of her grandparents. She 

16 241 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

spoke of her days at Mount Vernon as the very 
happiest period of her life, for then there had 
fallen no shadows to dim its brightness. The 
peaceful, domestic home atmosphere she knew 
there was never marred by official duties, how- 
ever arduous, while the perfect harmony which 
existed between General and Mrs. Washington 
set a rare standard of marital devotion be- 
fore the young girl. Though many eligible men 
sought the hand of Nellie Custis, and though she 
might have smiled encouragingly upon some of 
them, she was true to the wishes of her grand- 
father, who approved of only one, that one 
being his nephew, Lawrence Lewis, the son 
of Betty Washington, who took up his resi- 
dence at Mount Vernon in 1798. And so it 
came to pass that when the ward of the 
first President reached her twentieth year, 
she admitted to the world her love for Law- 
rence Lewis, and in this betrothal George 
Washington found the final gratification of his 
worldly desires. 

On the twenty-third of January, 1799, Wash- 
ington wrote his nephew: 

"Dear Lawrence: Your letter of the 10th 
instant I received in Alexandria on Monday, 

242 



ELEANOR PAKKE CUSTIS 

whither I went to become the guardian of Nellie, 
thereby to authorize a license for your nuptials 
on the 22nd of next month, when, I presume, if 
your health is restored, there will be no impedi- 
ment to your union." 

And the following note authorizing the license 
referred to is copied from the original and was 
addressed to Captain George Deneale, Clerk of 
the Court of Fairfax County: " Sir: You will 
please to grant a license for the marriage of 
Eleanor Parke Custis with Lawrence Lewis, and 
this shall be your authority for so doing. 
" From sir, 

" Your very humble servant, 
" G. Washington.^" 

How stiff and stilted the old letters sound, yet 
in them we see the keen interest felt in the mar- 
riage of the General's wards. 

They tell us that Mount Vernon was in gala 
attire for this most interesting wedding, and long 
before the hour of the ceremony distinguished 
guests began to arrive. It was in the great draw- 
ing-room, in the most perfect Colonial setting, 
that Nellie Custis plighted her troth to the sol- 
dier President's nephew. Flowers bloomed in 

243 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

every corner; the notes of gentle music were 
heard throughout the house, which was lit by the 
soft radiance of wax tapers that shed their star- 
like brilliancy over an aristocratic throng. 

The young married people continued to live 
at Mount Vernon until the death of Washing- 
ton, but it was not until 1802 that they took up 
their residence in their own mansion at Wood- 
lawn, the President's bridal gift, where they dis- 
pensed a lavish hospitality which was eagerly 
sought and accepted by leading Americans and 
Europeans of the early nineteenth century. 
Gifted with such intuitive tact that she could 
bring together great minds that warred or har- 
monized, Nellie Custis Lewis was also the em- 
bodiment of true womanly domesticity, being 
ever the gracious hostess, sincere friend and 
trusted helpmate. Such men as Lafayette and 
Zachary Taylor frequently begged leave to visit 
AVoodlawn, where they always found rest for 
their tired brains in the sunny atmosphere of the 
womanly intelligence of the young matron they 
had known as a child at Mount Vernon. Though 
her life had been cast in public channels, and she 
had been the petted darling of the first Republi- 
can Court, Mrs. Lewis met her real happiness in 
her own home where she proved the fondest of 

244 




ELEANOR PARKE CUSTIS 

MRS. LAWRENCE LEWIS 

From the Engraving after Gilbert Stuart's Portrait 



ELEANOR PARKE CUSTIS 

wives and most devoted of mothers. Mrs. 
Robert E. Lee, her niece, who knew her as inti- 
mately as she was known to any, compared her 
in her relationship to Americans to what Madame 
de Sevigne was to the French, saying that ow- 
ing to her brilliant wit, lucid mind, her extensive 
information and clear memory, her ready pen, 
had it been given rein, might have left memoirs 
worthy of a place in the highest literature of 
the country. 

In the library of Washington-Lee University, 
in the beautiful old town of Lexington, Virginia, 
there hang two portraits of this old time belle. 
One, a pastel done by Sharpless, shows her as 
Nellie Custis, the girl of sixteen with flowing 
hair and high-bred profile. The other portrays 
Mrs. Lawrence Lewis at the height of her beauty. 
Both likenesses are winsome and appealing and 
in each case the subject is very simply gowned. 

After an early life of mingled sunshine and 
roses which gradually faded into days shaded by 
griefs and cares, Nellie Custis Lewis, as a be- 
nign old lady closed her eyes forever on the fif- 
teenth day of July, in 1852. She sleeps into 
eternity in the peaceful Mount Vernon grave- 
yard, where all who visit that sacred spot can see 
the monument which rises in her honor: 

24-5 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

" Sacred 

to the memory of Eleanor Parke Custis, 

granddaughter of Mrs. Washington, and adopted 

daughter of General Washington. 

Reared under the roof of the Father of his Country, 

this lady was not more remarkable for the beauty 

of her person than for the superiority of her 

mind, and died to be regretted, July 15, 

1852, in the seventy-fourth year 

of her age." 



THEODOSIA BURR 



MRS. JOSEPH ALSTON 




HEODOSIA BURR! 

No eulogy of mere 
words is needed to 
awaken the associations 
which, for all time, 
must cling to that ro- 
mantic name, and our 
hearts bow in reverent 
homage before the sad thoughts born of its 
contemplation. 

In Albany, New York, on June 23rd, 1783, 
Theodosia was born to Aaron Burr and his wife, 
Theodosia Prevost, the widow of an English 
army officer. Of her father, various opinions 
are held in history, but of her mother, the world 
knows but little beyond what Burr himself said 
of her, " The mother of my Theo was the best 
woman and the finest lady I have ever known," 
and her superior mind and evident beauty were 
ably reproduced in this only child. 

A passionate lover of books and learning, 
Aaron Burr undertook to mould the plastic mind 

24T 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

of this much loved daughter who has been called 
by someone, " the soul of her father's soul." 
When Burr assumed his seat in the Senate in 
Philadelphia, he left with his wife a carefully 
thought out line of study he wished Theodosia 
to pursue; she was about ten years old then and 
was studying Greek, Latin and French. At the 
age of eleven, she lost her mother, and after this 
sad blow, she and her father were almost insepa- 
rable. Brilliant as he was in mind, Aaron Burr 
admitted this little girl as his mental companion, 
and never in all the vicissitudes that followed 
him through life did he have cause to regret 
for one instant the marvellous affection he had 
lavished upon his daughter. 

Like Thomas Jefferson, he was no easy task- 
master for his pupil; not only were the studies 
he planned for her far beyond her years, but he 
exacted, among other things, the keeping of a 
journal during his absence in order that he might 
see how she progressed. In response to one of 
these journals sent him when Theodosia was just 
eleven. Burr wrote : " Yesterday I received your 
letter and journal to the 13th inclusive. On the 
ISth you say you got nine pages of Lucian. 
It was, to be sure, a most surprising lesson!" 
Fancy a child of such tender years mastering 

S48 



THEODOSIA BURR 



nine wearisome pages of Lucian! Yet Theo- 
dosia Burr was fully capable of it, and the praise 
that came to her from her idolized parent made 
her feel that it was far more than worth while. 

That Burr's ambitions for his daughter were 
much deeper than mere worldliness, he shows in 
a letter written to his wife when the child was 
very young. " If I could foresee that Theodosia 
would become a mere fashionable woman with all 
the attendant frivolity and vacuity of mind, 
adorned with whatever grace and allurement, I 
would earnestly pray God to take her forthwith 
hence." 

At the age of fourteen, Theodosia took com- 
plete charge of her father's household, receiving 
and entertaining his guests in a manner that 
would have done credit to a seasoned woman of 
the world. Aaron Burr was at that time a popu- 
lar and prominent man, and Richmond Hill, his 
beautiful country seat in New York, was the 
mecca for such foreign travellers as Jerome 
Bonaparte, Louis Philippe, Talleyrand and nu- 
merous other men of note. Even at this early 
age Theodosia was a belle, and by the time she 
had reached sixteen was counted among the 
brightest social stars. 

But her wise father had not educated her for a 

249 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

purely frivolous existence, and his wholesome 
advice had prepared her for receiving adulation 
as a matter of course. In one of his letters he 
tells her: "You are maturing for solid friend- 
ship. The friends you gain you will never lose; 
and no one, I think, will dare to insult your un- 
derstanding by such compliments as are most 
graciously received by too many of your sex." 
Under such guidance, Theodosia was brought up 
to admit only a natural, unconscious manner 
without any absurd aiFectations, and that she 
well repaid all this care and thought, the world 
knows well. As a mite of a child, she wept bit- 
terly at any parting from her father, and during 
his absence, could not bear the mention of his 
name. The affection she held for Burr was of 
no ordinary kind, and among her letters to him 
one is preserved which shows how exalted it was. 
" You appear to me," she wrote, " so superior, 
so elevated above other men, I contemplate you 
with such a strange mixture of humility, admira- 
tion, reverence, love, and pride, that very little 
superstition would be necessary to make me wor- 
ship you as a superior being; such enthusiasm 
does your character excite in me. . . . My 
vanity would be greater if I had not been placed 
so near you ; and yet my pride is our relationship. 

250 




THEODOSIA BURR 
MRS. JOSEPH ALSTON 



THEODOSIA BURR 



I had rather not live than not be the daughter 
of such a man." 

At eighteen, this girl who seems to have been 
born for tragedy is described as rather short in 
stature with a graceful carriage and noble poise; 
her complexion was exquisite, her face and figure 
just rounded enough to be pleasing, but it was 
her charming dignity and ease of manner that 
placed her apart from the majority of young 
women of her age. It was at this time that 
Theodosia Burr knew, perhaps, her greatest hap- 
piness; her father's prominence was increasing 
every day, as was his perfect confidence in her; 
the most delightful persons in America were 
counted among her best friends, and finally, when 
she met Joseph Alston, of South Carolina, her 
cup of happiness seemed filled to overflowing. 

Knowing her own mind so well, and realizing 
after a very short acquaintance that Alston was 
the one man for her, the young girl saw no cause 
for delaying the marriage, which was celebrated 
in Albany just a short while before she was 
eighteen, on the second of February, in the year 
1801. Her husband was then but twenty-two; 
possessing great talents, full of ambition, 
wealthy, handsome, the youthful South Carolin- 
ian appeared a fitting mate for Theodosia, and 

251 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

her father, with an inward sigh, perhaps, but 
with outward sanction, gave her away. 

For three wonderful years Mrs. Alston knew 
ideal happiness; her father had become Vice- 
President: her husband adored her, and a little 
boy had come to make her feel the highest call 
of woman. Then trouble came; the death of 
Alexander Hamilton, the Mexican dream of 
Burr; the death of her child whom she adored. 
Through her father's disgrace her loyalty and 
devotion were unfaltering. He wrote her to come 
to him at once, and she responded as only Theo- 
dosia Burr could have. Day after day, she sat 
through his trial in Richmond, her faith in him 
never changing; she was the most conspicuous 
figure of all the crowd gathered in the Virginia 
town at that trying time. Her beauty, her stead- 
fast trust, her untiring care for her father, and 
the pity of her situation brought her the adora- 
tion of countless thousands. When Burr went 
abroad, she wrote him constantly, and in one let- 
ter there is the plaintive note of a bitter awak- 
ening. " The world," she told him, " begins to 
cool terribly around me. You would be sur- 
prised how many I supposed attached to me have 
abandoned the sorry losing game of disinterested 
friendship." 

262 



THEODOSIA BURR 



From that time on, the life of Theodosia Bun- 
was full of shadows. Though Governor Alston 
was all a husband could be, after the death of 
her boy she yearned to see her father, who had 
returned to New York, and when arrangements 
were made for her to pay the longed-for visit, 
the most tragic chapter in her extraordinary life 
was begun. America being at war with Eng- 
land, Governor Alston could not leave South 
Carolina to go with his wife, though her health 
was such that it seemed necessary for her to be 
accompanied by someone; accordingly, it was 
agreed that she should sail on the " Patriot " un- 
der the care of an old friend of her father's, Tim- 
othy Green, who made the journey from New 
York in order to take her back. The little ship 
embarked December 30th, 1812, and with its 
sailing, young Mrs. Alston was swept into the 
great unknown. 

The story is almost too well known for repe- 
tition here; the boat was lost, why or how even 
the wise must always wonder. There are many 
traditions as to its tragic fate; some claim it was 
a storm, while others give a more lurid reason. 
The sea, the entire coast, was frantically searched 
by husband and father, but the secret was never 
given up, and as the days lengthened into years, 

263 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

these two men in whose lives one girl had played 
so marvellous a part, grew tired of living, since 
life had come to mean to them one great regret. 
The trial proved too heavy for Joseph Alston. 
" My boy," was the cry from his heart to Burr, 
" my wife, gone both! This, then, is the end of 
all the hopes we had formed. You may well ob- 
serve that you feel severed from the human race. 
She was the last tie that bound us to the species. 
What have we left? Yet, after all, he is a poor 
actor who can not sustain his hour upon the stage, 
be his part what it may. But the man who has 
been deemed worthy of the heart of Theodosia 
Burr, and who has felt what it was to be blessed 
with such a woman's love, will never forget his 
elevation." Four years after his wife was lost, 
Joseph Alston, one of the brightest stars of the 
political and social South, bid the world fare- 
well to start upon the eternal journey which he 
prayed might take him to her. 

But the chapter is not closed, though what 
must follow only adds to the tangled mystery. 
Upon a cold, blustering day in the winter of 
1812, a little ship with rudder lashed and all sail 
set was blown ashore at Kitty Hawk, a point 
upon the North Carolina coast not very far from 
Hatteras. No human being was to be found 

254 




THEODOSIA BURR 
MRS. JOSEPH ALSTON 

The Nmr's Ht-ail Porlrait 



THEODOSIA BURR 



aboard, nor was there the slightest evidence of 
violence or bloodshed. There was every sign, 
though, that the cabin of the boat had been occu- 
pied by gentle folk. Upon the table, a dainty 
meal lay undisturbed ; a number of beautiful silk 
gowns and other bits of womanly finery were 
scattered about, while the portrait of a fair young 
woman hung conspicuously upon the wall. To 
the wi'eckers of the sand-dunes fell everything 
aboard, the portrait going into the possession of 
an untutored woman who lived upon the banks, 
and for fifty-seven years it hung upon the walls 
of a rough little cabin. In 1869, the old woman 
was taken ill, and Dr. Wm. G. Pool, a promi- 
nent North Carolina physician, then staying at 
Nags Head, went to her assistance; through the 
visit, the only substantial link between the cause 
and fate of Theodosia Burr seems to have been 
forged. 

Knowing the poverty of his patient. Dr. Pool 
would accept no money, but she was so grateful 
for his kindness that she insisted upon his tak- 
ing the picture that had for so long made bright 
her humble home, at the same time giving him 
as much of its history as she knew. Her husband 
was one of the wreckers of the ship that had foun- 
dered there in 1812, and had come home with 

255 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

the portrait and story that whoever had been on 
board must have been made to " walk the plank " 
by a pirate crew. 

For a time Dr. Pool knew nothing beyond the 
fact that the portrait represented some woman 
of patrician birth. Then, one day, his glance 
was arrested by a picture of Aaron Burr, and he 
was struck forcibly by the likeness of the man 
in one and the woman in the other; careful com- 
parison confirmed the belief that the subject of 
the mysterious portrait was in life Theodosia 
Burr. Dates, historic facts, all went to prove 
him right. Photographs of the portrait were 
sent to Mrs. Stella Drake Knappin, Charles Burr 
Todd, the writer, and many other descendants 
of the Burr family, all of whom pronounced it 
the likeness of Theodosia. Later, when several 
of the Burr connection visited Dr. Pool for the 
purpose of verifying the painting, with one ac- 
cord they pronounced it that of their lamented 
relative. 

The skeptical may ask — if pirates, why did 
they abandon their prize? This may be answered 
by the assumption that a United States ship 
might have come in sight and frightened them 
off after their dreadful work. 'Not is this mere 
conjecture, for some years ago in Norfolk, Vir- 

256 



THEODOSIA BURR 



ginia, two criminals were put to death, and in 
their final confession stated that they had be- 
longed to the pirate crew who boarded a ship 
called " The Patriot," to make all the passengers 
walk the plank. 

Again, way out in JNIichigan, an old man dy- 
ing in the almshouse made the same astonishing 
confession, saying he never had nor ever could 
forget the beautiful face of the only lady aboard 
as it sank into the deep. He told how she plead 
for life and promised their pardon. But they 
were all young then, he said, and heartless, yet 
each man acknowledged a sort of rough admira- 
tion for the calm manner in which their beautiful 
captive accepted her fate. 

The portrait exists to-day to prove that at least 
a portion of this story is absolutely true. It 
hangs in the home of Mrs. John P. Overman 
(formerly Miss Anna Pool), in Elizabeth City, 
where all who journey there may see it, and when 
they see it, pause to admire the high-bred face 
of superior intellect, with deep, dark, penetrat- 
ing eyes. 

St. Memin left a profile portrait of Theodosia 
Burr as a young girl; Sully, one of later age. 
One studies them to get an insight into the re- 
markable daughter of a famous man. We know 

17 257 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

they represent her, yet somehow, we linger so 
much longer before the old portrait in North 
Carolina. What a story it might tell! What a 
mystery it might lift could the veil of silence be 
withdrawn ! But as years have passed, still must 
they go, leaving forever to the name of Theodosia 
Burr a hallowed romance born of the unknown. 



BETSY PATTERSON 



MADAME JEROME BONAPARTE 




HEN young Jerome 
Bonaparte, then tour- 
ing America in accord- 
ance with his own 
sweet will, reached 
Baltimore on parade, 
his name was imme- 
diately enrolled among 
the many admirers of Mistress Betsy Patterson, 
daughter of William Patterson, merchant. Her 
brilliant beauty of face and form naturally 
attracted this youthful Court habitue, while, 
upon her personal acquaintance, her daring wit 
and vivacity of manner fanned the flame of ad- 
miration into the fire of love which was deep if 
not lasting. 

Elizabeth Patterson was about eighteen when 
she met the man who brought upon her the eyes 
of the world, and whether the superficial glory 
attached to the marriage ever atoned for the 
inner mortification, only the heart of Madam 
Bonaparte could have told. 

259 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

It was in 1803 that the young Frenchman 
visited America, and having heard of " Glorious 
Betsy " long before he saw her, boasted to his 
suite that he would marry here, and as his first 
sight of her proved her to be far lovelier than 
he had conceived, it is easy to fancy the enthu- 
siasm with which the youthful adorer plead his 
suit. Tradition tells us that it was at the Balti- 
more races where Jerome Bonaparte first saw 
the girl he afterwards made his wife, to treat her 
so inhumanly, and we are told that she wore a 
gown of pale yellow silk relieved at the neck 
with a handsome lace fichu, while her dark curls 
were half hidden under a picturesque leghorn 
hat heavily weighted with black plumes. It was 
not, however, until later, at a ball given by Hon. 
Samuel Chase, one of the signers of the Decla- 
ration of Independence, that he met her. 

The charming girl was at her best when the 
brother of Napoleon was presented to her. Hav- 
ing heard of his boast, she added a touch of pi- 
quant coquetry to her manner, sharpening her 
wits accordingly, and whether it was to her un- 
doing or not, she alone could tell. 

But old William Patterson did not look with 
favor upon the affair that was the wonder of so- 
cial Baltimore. Shrewd in his wisdom, he fore- 

260 



BETSY PATTERSON 



saw only trouble in the union of the two young 
people whose lives should have been so far re- 
moved from each other in land as well as sphere. 
Hoping that she might forget, or at least become 
reconciled to his will, he took his daughter down 
to his Virginia plantation where gayety was at a 
premium, and where ennui at once took posses- 
sion of the vivacious Betsy, who rebelled no more 
against the separation from her distinguished 
suitor than against the dull life that was forced 
upon her. But the involuntary seclusion availed 
not, for, upon her return to Baltimore, her be- 
trothal to Jerome Bonaparte was announced, 
this being scarcely two months after their first 
meeting. 

The suite of the young Frenchman, the pa- 
rents of the beautiful girl, all of whom realized 
the gravity of the obstacles that lay in their path 
to happiness, remonstrated to no avail, and, on 
the twenty-fourth of December, 1803, these two, 
whose story has served as a warning to the gene- 
rations that have followed them, were married 
by Archbishop Carroll. The ceremony took 
place in the Patterson house, and was witnessed 
by Alexander Camus, secretary to Jerome 
Bonaparte, and M. Sotin, the French Consul. 

That the bride possessed beyond her beauty a. 

261 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

decided individuality is appreciated when we hear 
that the gown she chose to be married in was a 
simple India muslin, exquisitely embroidered, 
and one which she had worn many times before. 
In her own words, she described it as, " little as 
possible of any gown at all "; pictures of dresses 
of that period give evidence as to that, for then, 
if ever, beauty unadorned was considered 
adorned the most. 

However things may have changed afterwards, 
young Jerome was an ideal lover during the hon- 
eymoon spent at the Patterson country seat not 
far from Baltimore, and if visions of brilliant 
courts, exalted station, and the acquaintance of 
great personages floated constantly before the 
eyes of the American bride, they only served to 
accentuate her apparent happiness, and as day 
followed day, the boy she had married fell more 
and more under her influence. But Napoleon 
Bonaparte, the imperial brother of the bride- 
groom, refused to acknowledge the marriage, and 
though William Patterson sent his son to Paris 
to intercede, and the intercession of the French 
Minister at Washington was secured in their 
behalf, the obdurate conqueror of peasant birtli 
chose to consider France insulted because his 
rattle-brained brother had taken as wife the 

263 




ELIZABETH PATTERSON 
MADAME JEROME BONAPARTE 

The Triple Head Portrait by Gilbert Stiiarl 



BETSY PATTERSON 



beautiful daughter of an American gentleman! 

In the meantime, the ambition of young 
Madame Bonaparte was to get to France, where, 
being confident of her superior attractions, she 
was convinced she would meet Napoleon, plead 
her own cause and win forgiveness. Though she 
was disappointed in sailing more than once, and 
though Jerome was commanded to return to his 
native country without her, the two finally set 
sail for Lisbon on the " Erin," one of Mr. Pat- 
terson's vessels, March 11th, 1805. Once she 
set foot upon foreign shores, Betsy Patterson be- 
gan to reap the results of her foolish step. In 
Lisbon, Jerome was met by an emissary of Na- 
poleon who greeted the traveller as the brother 
of the emperor, but pointedly addressed 
Madame Bonaparte as Miss Patterson; in fact, 
the latter was forbidden to land, while her hus- 
band was commanded to proceed at once to 
Paris. And so, the parting, which was des- 
tined to be final, took place, and with an ap- 
parently heavy heart, Jerome set out for Paris, 
leaving his young wife to sail for Amsterdam on 
the " Erin." 

" Your marriage is null and void, both from a 
religious and a legal point of view," wrote 
Napoleon to Jerome, when the latter requested 

263 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

an audience after liis return to France. " I will 
never acknowledge it. Write Miss [Patterson to 
return to the United States, and tell her it is 
not possible to give things another turn. On 
condition of her return to America, I will allow 
her a pension of sixty thousand francs a year, 
provided she does not take the name of my fam- 
ily, to which she has no right, her marriage hav- 
ing no existence." 

The rest of the story is too well known to be 
repeated. Napoleon never received Elizabeth 
Patterson; Jerome was made King of West- 
phalia; their son, though his mother had given 
him the name of Jerome Bonaparte, never came 
into his rights although, when his father was mar- 
ried in 1807 to Princess Frederika Catherine of 
Wurtemburg, Betsy Patterson was offered the 
title of Princess of Smalcalden, with a pension of 
200,000 francs a year. It is gratifying to every 
loyal American to know that, though upon 
many occasions Madame Bonaparte courted 
a high position in foreign lands, she refused 
this gift of her faithless husband, preferring 
to remain just Madame Bonaparte rather 
than sell her legal right for the title of a petty 
princess. 

To the Emperor, Madame Bonaparte was 

264 




PRINCE JEROME BONAPARTE 

From the Portrait bv Gilbert Stuart 



BETSY PATTERSON 



" Miss Patterson " to the end of the chapter, and 
though he was steadfast in his refusal to meet 
her, he admitted a keen admiration of her caustic 
wit of which he had heard so much. She gladly 
accepted an annuity from him, but was obstinate 
in her refusal to give up her name and return to 
America, and what a triumph it must have been 
for her to count among her intimate friends and 
admirers such personages as the Prince of Wur- 
temburg, Talleyrand, and Madame de Stael, per- 
sonages whom Napoleon Bonaparte was always 
Cgisid to admit into his presence. 

It did not appeal to the American girl to pine 
romantically and let her heart be broken; she 
mended as best she could the rudely snapped 
threads through her pleasure-loving disposition. 
If her life was long, it must have been still lone- 
lier, and if through it all her wit never ceased 
to sparkle, there must have been times when it 
scarcely seemed worth while. She was rightly 
stubborn in her refusal to gratify Napoleon and 
style herself Mrs. Patterson, though he offered 
a goodly price to win his way. 

The letters from Madame Bonaparte to her 
father, written at the height of her European 
career, prove most interesting reading, though 
through them all one is impressed with her intense 

265 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

selfishness. In these epistles she reveals very dis- 
tinctly her personal ambition, her inordinate love 
of money and her pride in her son, the only per- 
son for whom she ever showed the slightest af- 
fection. Stored away in the attic of the Patter- 
son house in Baltimore, this package of letters 
was found about 1879, tied up with red tape, 
and marked upon the outer cover, " Betsey's Let- 
ters." In one of them, dated Rome, 1822, she 
speaks proudly of the way her son had been re- 
ceived by his Bonaparte relatives, concluding: 
" They expect the K. W. and his wife here on a 
visit to his mother. I fancy he is coming to get 
money out of her. The family are all like other 
families. I shall not see the K. W., nor would 
he like it himself, after the unhandsome way in 
which he has always conducted himself. I shall 
hold my tongue, which is all I can possibly do 
for him." In doing this, Mistress Betsy was 
granting a great deal, since that particular mem- 
ber of hers was feared for its sting far and near. 

Of course, the K. W. was Jerome Bonaparte, 
King of Westphalia, and the manner in which 
his American wife speaks of him shows that she 
had overcome both her affection for him and the 
pique she had felt at his treatment of her. 

Elizabeth Patterson was intent upon marrying 

266 



BETSY PATTERSON 



Jerome, her only child, whom she fondly called 
" Bo," to the daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, and 
her tactful wit would doubtless have accom- 
plished this desire but for the young man decid- 
ing for himself upon the matter of his heart. 
Madame Bonaparte as bitterly opposed his mar- 
rying any American woman as she insisted upon 
the foreign alliance, and that her limitless am- 
bition suffered its keenest blow when she heard 
of the boy's engagement to Miss Williams, a 
Baltimore belle, a letter written from Florence 
would seem to prove. " You and the son of 
Prince Jerome Bonaparte had been told so often 
by me that I considered a marriage between him 
and any American woman so much beneath him 
that I would never, for any consideration, con- 
sent to it. I can only repeat that if it takes place 
I shall declare publicly that I was not consulted, 
that my consent was not asked, and that my 
opinion was and always will be that he ought 
to live singly unless he marries suitably to his 
connexions in Europe." Her feelings are por- 
trayed a bit more violently in a note six weeks 
later: "Dear Sir: When my son left Europe I 
told him never to marry in America, and I have 
repeated the same thing to him in every letter 
since. I certainly never would have married any 

267 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

one there after having married the brother of an 
Emperor." 

What an insufferable snob Glorious Betsy 
proved herself upon this subject! And the least 
prejudiced must admit that her conduct and 
narrow-mindedness was such that what might 
have been pride in her is changed into contempt 
for her. Replying to these lengthy and bitter 
letters, William Patterson wrote his daughter 
that she should not blame her boy for marrying 
without her consent since she not only ignored 
the wishes of her family in her own marriage, but 
relinquished her country as well. And then we 
read the most unpardonable letter of all: "I 
really wonder that a person of as much sense as 
j^ourself can ever affect to blame me for leaving 
a family who neither admired nor liked me, and, 
above all, I wonder at your ever having written 
it to me, because it forces me to tell you that I 
consider myself as having been always most un- 
justly and cruelly treated by some persons in 
my family. The less said about my leaving my 
country, the better — after my marriage, it was 
absurd to expect that I could descend from a 
prince to a trader, and you ought to have sent 
me to Europe if I had not come. America was 
no longer a residence for me." 

268 



BETSY PATTERSON 



Glancing over these lines, which awaken a fire 
of indignation, one wonders not at the caustic 
paragraph William Patterson devoted to his un- 
dutiful daughter in his will, that long and curi- 
ous document. " The conduct of my daughter 
Betsey has through life been so disobedient, that 
in no instance ha& she ever consulted my opinion 
or feelings; indeed, she has caused me more 
anxiety and trouble than all my other children 
put together, and her folly and misconduct has 
occasioned me a train of expense that first and 
last has cost me much money. Under such cir- 
cumstances it would not be reasonable, just or 
proper that she should at my death inherit and 
participate in an equal portion with my other 
children, in an equal division of my estate. Con- 
sidering, however, the weakness of human nature, 
and that she is still my daughter, it is my will 
and pleasure to provide for her." 

^ This American girl, married and deserted be- 
fore she was twenty, " possessed the savoir vivre 
of Chesterfield, the cold cynicism of Rochefou- 
cauld, and the practical economy of Franklin." 
In 1805, she returned to America, where she re- 
mained until the victory at Waterloo, and when 
Napoleon was existing wearily at St. Helena 
and the Bonaparte family exiled from France, 

269 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

Betsy Patterson went once more to Paris, where 
she queened it in the most brilliant salons, was 
courted by princes, and honored with the atten- 
tion of Wellington and Talleyrand. 

The brilliant European career of Betsy Pat- 
terson lasted about fifteen years, and notwith- 
standing her violent opposition to living in 
America, the worldly woman was forced to re- 
turn to Baltimore in 1834. She likened her ex- 
istence in " the little trading town " to a grain 
of wheat hidden in a bushel of chaff, and bitter 
indeed it must have been for her to exchange 
the gilded salons of Paris for a poor room in a 
Baltimore boarding-house. 

Of the beauty of Betsy Patterson, one may 
judge from more than one canvas, though per- 
haps that which best portrays her is from the 
brush of Gilbert Stuart, who has shown her 
lovely head in three poses, the triple head por- 
trait, as it is called. This picture was painted to 
order for Jerome Bonaparte, who imperiously 
commanded that it be put through immediately. 
Stuart, being very busy at the time, refused to 
make any definite promise, whereupon the young 
autocrat spoke so rudely to the artist that the 
latter declined not only to finish it, but to allow 
it to be taken away at any price. Some years 

270 



BETSY PATTERSON 



later, when William Patterson was sitting to 
Stuart, the portrait of Madame Bonaparte hap- 
pened to be mentioned and the painter had it 
brought down from the garret where it had 
been stored, and presented it to the father of the 
subject. 

The altercation with the hot-headed French- 
man must have sorely rankled in Gilbert Stuart's 
heart, for, notwithstanding his great need of 
money at that time, he refused to accept a penny 
for the portrait, telling ^Ir. Patterson that he 
did not value his work anything like his position 
as an artist. This celebrated portrait, so beau- 
tiful and the cause of such a controversy, is now 
owned by Madame Bonaparte, of Washington, 
granddaughter-in-law of the old time belle. 

Nearly a quarter of a century longer than the 
time allotted to average mankind Betsy Patter- 
son lived. The heroine of the most stirring inter- 
national romance in our history, the belle of her 
own city and toast of foreign Courts, the com- 
panion of princes and princesses, she lived 
through varied experiences and emotions to die 
the pitiful death of a lonely, erratic old woman. 
At a quiet, secluded spot in Greenmount Ceme- 
tery, in the Maryland town, the visitor will al- 
ways pause to read upon a certain granite monu- 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

ment the brief summary of a lengthy existence: 
" After life's fitful fever she sleeps well." Born 
February 6th, 1785, Glorious Betsy said good- 
by forever to the world she loved so well in 
April, 1879. Her ambition had disturbed the 
imperial peace of the great Napoleon; her di- 
vorce had caused a rupture between the Emperor 
and the Pope, while her stinging wit and ex- 
ceptional beauty had given her all the rights of a 
social queen. Altogether, her cup was one of 
such bitter-sweetness that her history has been 
eagerly seized upon by playwright and author. 
Many years have passed since her death, many 
lives have bloomed and faded, yet no woman has 
come to give to America and Europe such ro- 
mantic material for retrospection and conjecture 
as that left us by Elizabeth Patterson, the fa- 
mous Madame Bonaparte. 



ANNE CARMICHAEL 

MRS. WILLIAM KEYMEYS 




GREENED from the 
street by great trees 
and old time roses, in 
Fredericksburg, Vir- 
ginia, stands a quaint 
old mansion made fa- 
mous by an interesting 
daughter, whose life 
left as great an impress upon the social annals of 
the old South as did the diamond that cut so 
deeply into the glass of an upper window, " Anne 
Carmichael." 

One ardently wishes that more than the mere 
name had been chiselled into the heavy pane; a 
date, a line of poetry, any little thing that might 
have left a personal note for those who came after 
the fair writer, but there is only written " Anne 
Carmichael," and fancy must help us color the 
picture w^e wish to paint. For nearly a century 
the old window glass has stood the wear of storm 
and fire and war, and more than three genera- 
tions have wondered why the indelible words 



18 



273 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

were traced. Downstairs in the same venerable 
mansion, over the mantel in the high ceiled draw- 
ing-room, hangs the portrait of lovely Anne 
Carmichael whose name stars so brilliantly the 
chamber above. 

Both graceful and coquettish in pose, perhaps 
even a bit defiant, this faithful likeness of the 
beautiful girl has long been of interest to lovers 
of art. For some time the Corcoran Art Gal- 
lery did their utmost to secure it, offering a 
goodly sum, but to the collateral descendants of 
the capricious Anne the value of her portrait 
proved higher upon the walls of her one-time 
home than in the great art gallery. It suited the 
lovely subject to present this picture of herself 
to her uncle, Dr. George French Carmichael, to 
whom she was sincerely devoted, and it was 
through him that it came into the possession of his 
grandson, Dr. Randolph Bryan Carmichael, the 
present owner and second cousin of Anne. 

To the visitor to Fredericksburg so fortunate 
as to see the portrait of the old time belle, many 
beautiful memories are given and many are the 
steps retraced for one last look upon it. From 
its rich setting of auburn curls, divided above the 
right brow to hang loosely over each shoulder, 
the exquisitely lovely face of purest oval has 

27-i 




AWE CARMICHAEL 
INIRS. WILLIAM KEYMEYS 



ANNE CARMICHAEL 



looked down from its tarnished frame for nearly 
a hundred years. The eyes are blue and very, 
very innocent; one can scarcely reconcile them 
with the laughter loving, saucy, daring Anne who 
turned the heads of the Virginia gentry in the 
early days of our Republic. A slender, delicate 
nose with high-cut nostrils, that undeniable mark 
of the true aristocrat, the most irresistible of 
mouths, and sloping shoulders from a snowy 
neck, gave to the beautiful girl more than her 
share of loveliness. Whether it was thanks to 
the artist or to herself, the gown in which Anne 
Carmichael chose to be painted set oiF in its 
very simplicity her remarkable beauty ; white and 
soft, it seems to melt into the delicate skin un- 
relieved by the slightest touch of lace, but tied 
in at the waist with a broad blue ribbon — won- 
drous combination for the Titian hair. The head 
is a bit tilted and the left arm bent to show its 
perfect contour; the other rests upon a pedestal, 
and between the first and second fingers of the 
hand a tiny Noisette rose of creamy tone is 
matched against the flawless neck. Back of the 
figure hangs a drapery of wine-colored velvet, 
but the name of the artist to whom we are in- 
debted for this charming portrait we unfortu- 
nately do not know. If she could but step from 

275 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

the frame for one brief instant, the gay Anne 
Carmichael of olden days! So many tales are 
told of her, for she was as witty as she was lovely, 
as daring as she was fascinating. Her pleasure 
loving nature saw fun in everything, and at times 
she was considered a bit outrageous in her bold 
speeches and unconventional acts, which were 
whispered and repeated in the most shocked of 
tones at little tea parties. But Anne Carmichael 
lived in the time of prunes and prisms; when a 
maid must walk as all the maidens of her line had 
walked before; when she must be shy, demure, 
retiring, small wonder then that the brilliant 
young girl threw down the barriers of conven- 
tionality, snapped her fingers in the face of the 
good people of Fredericksburg and followed her 
own sweet will. And a vigorous will it proved 
to be, too ! But she did little more than the young 
women of to-day claim as their rightful privi- 
leges, and had she not been so brave in assert- 
ing her own words and wishes, no doubt her 
name would have gone into oblivion when she 
was laid to rest in the old Masonic Cemetery of 
her native town. As it is, Anne Carmichael is 
known to half the country; her caustic sayings 
have been quoted for many, many years ; her do- 
ings chronicled in history and verse. In her acts 

276 



ANNE CARMICHAEL 



she was the sister of the woman of to-day, but for 
environment she had a far more picturesque stage 
even if it was a trifle narrow. 

Many are the anecdotes told of the Virginia 
belle that must be hinted rather than written, for 
she was naughty enough sometimes, this beautiful 
Anne, to allow her clever tongue to voice words 
as shocking as they were laughter provoking. 
Unchaperoned, she would go for wonderful 
drives with parsons and laymen, young and old. 
She seems to have made sport of everything and 
everybody; she laughed at the little tragedies of 
life; scorned one moment her innumerable ad- 
mirers, at the next drew them into her toils. Un- 
certain, coy, lovely beyond imagination, it was 
said that Anne Carmichael could have married 
almost any man who ever knew her; perhaps 
that is why she frivolled and flirted beyond the 
age at that time allotted to girlhood. The joys 
of conquering the many were far too sweet to 
be given up to the conquest of the one, and the 
beauty waited until she had counted several 
years beyond twenty, a shocking age for an 
early nineteenth century maiden, before she 
capitulated. 

It was not altogether vanity that kept Anne 
Carmichael playing her lovers according to her 

277 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

caprice and fancy, for there came into her life 
one man to whom her heart was truly given, one 
man who brought into her face the troubled, dis- 
contented look that lurks back of her eyes in the 
old portrait. As long as her name will be re- 
membered it will be linked with that of Shakes- 
peare Caldwell, the romance of her life. The 
manly beauty of Shakespeare Caldwell was, in 
its way, as perfect as that of the young girl he 
loved so well. He had many things to offer her, 
much to give that she craved with all her heart, 
but there were reasons why her family frowned 
upon the marriage, and the defiant Anne for 
once bowed to wills other than her own. But 
she never cared the least for any other man; 
she let Shakespeare Caldwell go, apparer\tly 
with a smile, but when Mr. William Keymeys, 
a wealthy widower from New York, asked her 
to become his wife, her answer was given half 
sobbingly, "I'll marry you but Shake has my 
heart." 

Mrs. Sally Nelson Robins, of Richmond, is the 
possessor of a letter from Edward Keymeys, the 
noted sculptor, and step-son of Anne Carmichael, 
in which he speaks of his first meeting with her: 
" I was about six years old when my father 
brought her home to New York," writes Mr. 

278 



ANNE CARMICHAEL 



Keymeys, " but remember perfectly how she 
looked and how I loved her, and how, even as a 
child I realized Avhat I might have been if she 
had only lived ; and coming to Fredericksburg as 
a Union soldier, my first impulse was to ask about 
her people and her home." 

The pitiful chapter in the life of Anne Car- 
michael comes with her death one short year after 
her marriage, when she was only twenty-six, and 
to us who look back through a long aisle of years, 
it seems so pathetically sad that her short life 
could not have granted her the great desire of her 
heart. Those who stood between her and its ful- 
filment must have bowed their heads in more than 
grief at the open grave in old Fredericksburg, 
a prey to the gnawing thought that through mis- 
guided love for her, they had robbed Anne Car- 
michael of true happiness. 

If Anne Carmichael had a passion for admira- 
tion, she used it to the good of her fellow-beings ; 
she wanted to be loved by everyone, and her kind 
words and deeds for little children, her earnest 
solicitude for older people, her consideration of 
all those beneath her, made her an object of 
adoration from old Black Mammy up. 

Calmly she rests in the old cemetery, yet she 
lives brightly in the memory of the favored few 

279 



OLD TIME BELLES AND CAVALIERS 

who knew her when she ruled Virginia ; to these, 
she is still a living presence, and their faces light 
and their lips frame smiles when they speak of the 
brilliant young beauty who died that long ago 
day of 1840. 



INDEX 



Abingdon-on-the-Potomac, 235 
Adams, Abigail, 175, 178, 179, 181, 

182, 183, 185, 206 
Adams, John, 124, 127, 174, 228 
Adams, Miss, 135 
Adams, Mrs. John, 174, 175, 206 
Alexander, Catharine, 157 
Alexander, Lady Kitty, 153 
Alexander, William, 152 
Alston, Governor, 253 
Alston, Joseph, 251, 254 
Alston, Mrs., 252, 253 
Amonate, 12 

Andre, John, 139, 140, 152, 160 
Andre, Lieutenant, 140, 141 
Arago, 123 
Argall, 13 

Argyle, Duke of, 29 
Arlington, 224 
Armistead, Judith, 25 
Armitage, Sarah, 219 
Arnold, B., 164 
Arnold, Gen. Benedict, 161, 165, 

166, 167 
Arnold, Margaret, 164, 166, 167, 

168 
Arnold, Mrs., 165 
Ashburton, Lord, 177 
Atkinson, Mrs. Theodore, 97, 100 
Atkinson, Theodore, 97 

Ball, Marv, 41, 43, 44, 48, 50, 51 

Ball, William, 42 

Bancroft, 132 

Baring, Hon. Mrs. Henry, 177 

Baskingridge, 153, 156 

Belvoir, 77, 78, 82 

Berkeley, Governor, 43 

Biddle, James, 88 

Bingham, Anne, 176 

Bingham, Mrs., 170, 172, 174, 175, 

176, 177, 206 
Bingham, 169, 170, 177 
Blodget, Mrs., 216 
Blodget, Mrs. Samuel, 212 
Blodget, Rebecca, 215, 217 
Blodget, Samuel, 215 



Bollmg, Col. Robert, 19 
Bonaparte, Jerome, 249, 259, 260, 

261, 264, 266, 267, 270 
Bonaparte, Joseph, 267 
Bonaparte, Madame, 259, 263, 

264, 265, 267, 271, 272 
Booten Hall, 16 
Boudinot, 155 
Boyle, Charles, 33 
Bradford, William, 88 
Brandon, 32, 39, 61 
Burr, Aaron, 189, 190, 247, 249, 

256 
Burr, Theodosia, 247, 249, 251, 

253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258 
Burke, 19 
Burns, David, 69 
Burrows, Silas E., 53 
Byrd, Colonel, 32, 33, 34 
Byrd, Evelyn, 57, 59, 60, 61, 63, 65 
Byrd, Lucy Parke, 56 
Byrd, William, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 

36, 38, 39, 56, 60 
Byrd, William II, 29 

Cadwalader, Colonel, 86, 87, 90, 91 
Cadwalader, Dr. Thomas, 87 
Cadwalader, John, 87, 88 
Cadwalader, Lambert, 86, 87, 88, 

89, 91, 92 
Caldwell, Shakespeare, 278 
Calvert, Charles, 103 
Calvert, Leonard, 235 
Camus, Alexander, 261 
Carleton, General, 130 
Carmichael, Anne, 273, 274, 275, 

276, 277, 278, 279 
Carmichael, Dr. George French, 274 
Carmichael, Dr. Randolph Bryan, 

274 
Carroll, Archbishop, 261 
Carroll, Charles, 238 
Carter, John, 21 
Carter, "King," 23, 24, 25, 27 
Carter, Robert, 23, 25 
Carter, Robert of Corotoman, 21 
Carter, Sarah Ludlow, 21 



281 



INDEX 



Cary, Elizabeth, 87 
Cavendish, Anne, 103 
Chamberlayne, Mr., 67 
Chase, Hon. Samuel, 260 
Chastellux, Marquis de, 33 
Chenevard, Mary Julia, 202 
Chenevard, John, 202 
Chesterfield, 60, 269 
Chew, Judge Benjamin, 139 
Chew, Margaret Oswald, 139, 142 
Chew, Peggy, 139, 140 
Chilham Castle, 102, 107 
Cibber, 60 
Clare, 201 
Clay, Mr., 193 
Clififord, 201 
Clive, Lord, 154 
Cliveden, 140 
Comte de Tilly, 177 
Copley, John Singleton, 95, 96, 

100, 113, 183 
Cornwallis, Lord, 48, 114, 229 
Corotoman, 21, 25 
Cowperthwaite, Joseph, 88 
Culpepper, Lord, 76 
Custis, Daniel Parke, 59, 65, 66 
Custis, Eleanor Calvert, 234 
Custis, Eleanor Parke, 240, 241, 

243, 246 
Custis, Eliza, 227, 228, 230, 231, 

232, 233, 240 
Custis, G. W. P., 239 
Custis, Hon. John, 57, 224, 232 
Custis, John Parke, 234 

Dale, Sir Thomas, 14, 15 
Dandridge, Martha, 59, 64, 65, 70, 

73, 238 
Daniel, Senator, 54 
Deering, 94 
DeLancey, Alice, 109, 110, 111, 

112, 113, 114, 115 
DeLancey, Peter, 109 
DeLanci, Etienne, 109 
Delaware, Lord and Lady, 15 
Del Campo, 181 
Deneale, Captain George, 243 
Devonshire, Duchess of, 174 
De Wmdt, 183 
Despencers, 201 
Digges, 101, 102, 106, 107 
Digges, Col. William, 103 



Digges, Dudley, 102 

Digges, Edward, 101 

Digges, George, 103, 104, 106, 107 

Digges, Sir Dudley, 101, 107 

Due de Liancourt, 175 

Duer, Colonel, 154, 155 

Duer, Lady Kitty, 152, 156, 157 

Duer, William, 153, 154, 155 

Earle, Ralph, 147 
Edge Hill, 207 
Ellenborough, Lord, 228 
Elwin, Rev. Withall, 17 
Eppes, Maria, 208 
Eppes, Mrs., 209 

Fairfax, Anne, 78 

Fairfax, Brian, 75, 77, 81, 82, 85 

Fairfax, Lady, 82 

Fairfax, Lord, 75, 77, 82, 84 

Fairfax, Rev. Mr., 81 

Fairfax, Sally, 78 

Fairfax, Thomas, 76, 77 

Fairfax, William, 77, 79 

Fort Cumberland, 67 

Fort Griswold, 200 

Fort Washington, 90, 106 

Francestown, 94 

Francis, Tench, 88 

Franklin, B., 213 

Gage, General, 119 
Gainsborough, Thomas, R. A., 112, 

113, 123 
Gardoquoi, Mr., 181 
George IL 30, 57 
Germaine, Lord George, 120 
Gibbon, 122 

Gordon, Duchess of, 154 
Grave-send Parish, 17 
Graydon, 88 
Green, Timothy, 253 
Greene, General, 154 
Greenway County, 77 
Greenwood, 91, 92 
Guizot, 123 
Gurney, Francis, 80 

Haddonfield, 188 

Hamilton, Alexander, 146, 148,166, 

252 
Hamilton, Elizabeth, 147, 148 
Hatfield, 155 



282 



INDEX 



Harvey, 60 

Hog, Peter, 75 

Holley, Mrs. Hamilton, 150 

Hope Park, 230 

Howard, Col. John Eager, 142, 143 

Howard, 143 

Howe, Sir William, 90, 139 

Hudson, Thomas, 52 

Huntingdon, Daniel, 137 

Irving, Washington, 81, 106, 236 
Isabella, Queen of Spain, 12 
Izard, Alice, 112, 113 
Izard, Mrs. Ralph, 109, 115 
Izard, Ralph, 110, 114 

Jackson, Major William, 176 

Jackson, President Andrew, 53 

James I, 15 

James II, 76 

Jay, Elizabeth, 138 

Jay, John, 135, 137, 165 

Jay, Mrs. John, 134, 135, 136, 137, 

138, 181 
Jefferson, Martha, 204, 206, 207, 

209 
Jefferson, Martha Wayles, 204 
Jefferson, Miss, 206 
Jefferson, Polly, 211 
Jefferson, Thomas, 172, 174, 181, 

182, 204, 208, 210, 248 
Joan of Arc, 54 

Kempe, Mary, 102 

Kennedy, 155 

Keymeys, Edward, 278 

Keymeys, William. 278, 279 

King Charles I, 101 

King George, 37, 38 

King George III, 131 

King of Westphalia, 266 

Kitty Hawk, 254 

Knappin, Mrs. Stella Drake, 256 

Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 26, 39, 52, 

58, 61 
Kosciusko, 231 

Lady Erskine, 217 

Lady Salisbury, 174 

Lady Talbot, 174 

Lafayette, 47, 50, 164, 170, 244 

Lafayette, Madame de, 136 



Lambert, Hannah, 87 

Landon, Betty, 25 

Laplace, 123 

Lavoisier, 122 

Law, Mrs. Thomas, 230, 240 

Law, Thomas, 228, 229, 231, 232, 

233 
Lear, Mr., 72 
Leeds Castle, 84 
Ledyard, Lieut. Col., 201 
Ledyard, Mary, 200 
Legrange, 123 
L'Enfant, Major, 106 
Lewis, Col. Fielding, 52 
Lewis, Mrs. Fielding, 46 
Lewis, Lawrence, 242, 243 
Lewis, Mrs. Lawrence, 245 
Lewis, Nellie Custis, 244, 245 
Livingston, Governor, 134 
Livingston, Sarah, 152 
Livingston, Sarah Van Brugh, 134, 

135, 136, 137 
Lossing, Mr., 68 
Louis XIV, 170 
Louis Philippe, 176, 231, 249 
Lowe, Jane, Lady Baltimore, 103 
Lowe, Sir Vincent, 103 
Loxley, Benjamin, 38 

Macpherson, Captain, 127, 128 
Macpherson, John, 126, 128, 131 
Macpherson, Major John, 132 
Macpherson, William, 131 
Madison, Dolly, 148, 186, 187, 190 

191, 192, 193, 195, 196, 197, 198* 
199, 208 

Madison, James, 190, 191, 198 
Madison, Mrs. James, 190, 191 

192, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198 
Malbone, 114 
Manchester House, 171 
Marie Antoinette, 134, 138 
Markoe, Peter, 88 
Marlborough, Duke of, 225 
Martin, Benjamin, 77 
Martin, Charles, 147 
Martin, C. Wykham, 84 
Mateiro, 175 

Matoaka, 12, 16 
McCall, Archibald, 91 
McCall, Miss Mary, 91 
McKean, Gov. Thomas, 222 



283 



INDEX 



McKean, Sally, 219, 220, 222 

McKean, Sarah Maria Theresa, 219 

Meade, Bishop, 42, 81 

Melwood, 106 

Meredith, Samuel, 88 

Merry, Mrs., 209 

Mifflin, 88 

Mitchell, Dr., 191 

Moore Hall, 217 

Moore, Williamina, 217 

Montgomery, General, 129, 130 

Montpelier, 192, 196, 198, 199 

Moulder, Joseph, 88 

Mount Eagle, 78, 84, 85 

Mount Pleasant, 127 

Mount Vernon, 69, 70, 71, 74, 77, 

78, 81, 227, 235, 239, 241, 242. 

243, 245 
Mordaunt, Charles, 59, 60 
Morgan, Col. George, 93 
Morris, Mrs. Robert, 161 
Morris, Robert, 166 
Mortimer, 201 
Morton, 155 

Napoleon, 54, 260, 269 
Nash, Beau, 60 
Neimcewicz, 231 
Nightingale, Florence, 54 
Nixon, John, 88 
Nominy Hall, 25 

Oldfield, Mrs., 60 
Opechancanough, 18 
Overman, Mrs. John P., 257 
Oxford, 60 

Payne, Dolly, 187 

Payne, Dorothea, 189 

Payne, John, 186 

Payne, Mary Coles, 186, 187 

Parke, Col. Daniel, 30, 225 

Parke, Frances, 225, 227 

Parke, Lucy, 30 

Parkinson, Richard, 231 

Parsippany, 153 

Patttnson, Elizabeth, 259. 264, 

266, 271 
Patterson, Miss, 263, 264, 265 
Patterson, Mistress Betsy, 157, 

259, 263, 264, 270, 271 



Patterson, William, 128, 259, 260, 

262, 268, 269 
Peale, Charles Wilson, 86 
Penn, William, 171 
Percie, 201 
Perry, Norah, 9S 
Peterborough, Earl of, 59 
Peters, Richard, 88 
Pine, 137 
Pitt, William, 103 
Pocahontas, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 

17, 18, 19 
Pool, Dr. Wm. G., 255 
Pope, 60 

Powhatan, 12, 13, 14, 18 
Poythress, Jane, 18, 19 
Prevost, Theodosia, 247 
Princess Fredericka Catherine of 

Wurtemburg, 264 
Princess of Smalcalden, 264 
Proctor, Thomas, 88 
Purchas, 15 

Queen Anne, 39 

Queen Charlotte, 97, 167 

Randolph, Martha, 208 

Randolph, John of Roanoke, 211 

Randolph, Thomas Mann, 207, 208 

Reynolds. Sir Joshua, 26, 103, 114 

Richmond. Hill, 148. 249 

Rochefoucauld, 269 

Rodgers, Margaret, 127 

Rolfe, John, 14, 15. 17. 19 

Rolfe, Mrs., 119 

Rolfe, Thomas, 17, 18 

Rose of Epping Forest, 43, 44, 51 

Rumford, 118, 125 

Rumford, Count, 121, 122, 123 

Sabine Hall, 25 

Schuyler, Betsy. 146, 148, 150 
Schuyler, Elizabeth, 145 
Schuyler, General, 129, 146, 150 
Schuyler, Ph., 130, 145 
Seaton, Mrs., 191. 192. 195 
Sevigne, Madame de, 245 
Seymour, Hon. John, 200 
Seymour, Mary Julia, 200 
Seymour, Richard, 201 
Sharpless, 245 



284 



INDEX 



Shee, John, 88 

Shelborne, Earl of, 155 

Sheppard, William L., 17 

Shippen, Edward, 158 

Shippen, Margaret, 161, 168 

Shippen, Mrs., 160 

Shippen, Peggy, 155, 159, 162, 164, 

165, 166, 167. 168 
Shirley, 26 
Sinclair, Sir John, 83 
Smith, Abigail, 178, 184 
Smith, Colonel, 180, 182 
Smith, John, 11, 12, 13, 16 
Smith, Rebecca. 212, 217 
Smith, Rev. William, 212 
Smith, William Stephens, 179 
Sotin, 261 
Southard, 155 
Southwell, Sir Robert, 33 
Spotswood, Dorothea, 186 
Spotswood, Governor, 38 
St. George's Parish, 16 
St. James, Court of, 30, 104, 179 
St. Memin, 257 
Stirling, Lord, 156 
Stockton, 154 
Stuart, 20 
Stuart, Gilbert, 72, 170. 210, 217, 

227, 233, 270, 271 
Sully, 18, 210, 257 

Talleyrand, 175, 249, 265 

Taylor, Maria, 31 

Taylor, Zachary, 244 

Tarleton, 167 

Temple, Lady, 180, 181 

Temple, Sir John, 180 

The Elms, 110, 114. 115 

Thompson, Benjamin, 117, 119. 

120, 125 
Thompson, Major, 118 
Thompson, Sir Benjamin, 122, 124 
Todd, Charles Burr, 256 
Todd, DoUv. 190. 195 
Todd, John, 180, 189 
Todd, Payne, 189, 197 
Towleston. 75. 78 
Trumbull. Jonathan, 202 

Valley Forge, 70 

Van Rennselaer, Katherine, 145 



Viscount de Noailles, 175 
Volncy. 175. 231 

Walker. Sarah. 119 
Warburton, 101, 106 
Washington, Augustine, 44 
Washington, Betty, 242 
Washington. General, 50, 69, 74. 

119, 142, 146, 154, 164, 176, 182. 

233, 238, 246 
Washington, George, 41, 44, 67. 

78. 81, 82, 105, 230, 233, 234. 

235, 236, 240, 246 
Washington, Lady. 70. 136. 147. 

185, 231 
Washington, Madame, 47 
Washington, Martha, 69, 72, 73, 

74, 235 
Washington, Mary, 46, 49. 51, 53, 

54 
Washington, Mary Ball, 45, 51 
Washington. Mrs., 71, 72, 83, 150, 

182, 221, 227, 236, 238, 242, 246 
Washington. President, 69, 220,221 
Washington, Warner, 84 
Watson, Captain, 141 
Webster, Daniel, 137 
Wentworth, Frances Deering, 94. 

96.98 
Wentworth. Governor. 99. 118 
Wentworth. John. 96, 97, 98 
Wentworth, Lady, 99, 100 
Wentworth, Samuel, 94 
Wentworth, Sir John, 99 
Westover, 30, 33, 39, 56, 60. 61. 62 
Westover MSS.. 31. 32. 35 
Wilcocks, John, 88 
Willing, Anne, 169, 171. 175, 177 
Willing, Thomas, 169 
Wilson, Rev. Thomas, 82 
Winthrop, Theodore, 99 
Winyard, Lieutenant, 159 
Woburn. 117, 118 
Woodlawn, 234 
Woolaston. 72, 73 
Wrolfe, Rebecca, 16 
Wrolfe, Thos., 16 

Yrujo, Marquis de, 220, 221, 222 
Yrujo, Don Carlos Martinez de, 
220 



285 



NOV 21 1312 



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